From Blade Runner and A.I. to Short Circuit and the universally beloved D.A.R.Y.L., science fiction has long poked and prodded at the theoretical line separating sentient beings from artificial creations only capable of producing the illusion of sentience. These stories usually end in triumph, or at least vindication, for whatever robot, cyborg, or android is on metaphysical trial, whether it’s Data earning legal rights in Star Trek’s classic “The Measure of a Man,” Roy Batty forcing the world to acknowledge him, or Daryl doing what Daryl does.
It's a classic genre story, but 10 years ago, Ex Machina used it to pull a sneaky trick. The directorial debut of novelist and screenwriter Alex Garland, then most famous for writing 28 Days Later, Ex Machina is a simple but unnervingly effective thriller that’s retained its relevance as an alliance of lazy college students and easily bewildered legacy media columnists rush to deify ChatGPT.
