In the movie Ex Machina, Ava is an artificially intelligent robot that was created by Nathan, the founder and creator of “Blue Book,” the world’s largest and most popular search engine. Though there were several robot models before her, Ava is the newest and most advanced model which makes her the first of her kind.
The name Ava, which coincidentally (or perhaps not) is a combination of the names Adam and Eve, alludes to this idea that Ava is the first and only one of her kind. According to Genesis, Adam and Eve were the first humans created by god. The connection to Adam and Eve is especially fitting for Ava’s character because despite her externally superficial appearance of being female, she is actually neither male nor female by sex.
The movie makes several biblical references throughout the film and overall has the common themes of god and creation. For instance, the film suggests several times that Nathan himself is god within the story and that Ava is his first true creation. The name Caleb is also a biblical reference. In the Old Testament, Caleb was a spy and advised the Hebrews to take the land of Canaan and was in turn promised the land for his descendants. In the film, Caleb is a computer programmer who works at Blue Book and who was invited to Nathans compound in order to determine if Ava expresses true artificial intelligence. His job is to spy on Ava and report back to Nathan. In the process, Caleb falls in love with Ava and eventually believes that he will free her from her prison and that the two will be together in the real world.
A difficult question and possibly the main theme of the movie asks the viewer whether or not Ava is truly intelligent. The use of the word intelligence within the film and even in its overall association with artificial intelligence in general, tends to be synonymous with the word “conscious,” in that both words allude to the idea that a being is alive (at least in the way that human beings are alive). For that reason, when I posed the question “Is Ava Conscious,” I am using it in the context of whether or not Ava is self-aware and whether she is truly a conscious being, alive and with a soul.
Is Ava conscious, an intelligent being that is “alive?” Or is Ava simply a complex computer program which is capable of imitating life?
The latter part of the question is idea that comes up several times throughout the film. For instance, at one point Nathan suggests to Caleb that Ava may be simulating human emotions and that she may be pretending to have feelings for him.
Deconstruction: Is Ava conscious or is she simply imitating life?
We are introduced to Ava and on several occasions throughout the film and during each interaction with Caleb we get to see deeper inside of her mind. As the film progresses we become aware that Ava holds many qualities that allude to her humanity. For instance, she draws pictures which demonstrate her imagination and creativity. She uses humor which shows that she has a theory of mind. She portrays emotions such as sadness and longing among others and she even demonstrates her sexuality and that she has desires. Most importantly though, Ava demonstrates empathy, which some may argue is one of the most important aspects of humanity.
Much of Ava’s qualities are revealed through different dialogues between the films characters. For instance, in a conversation early on with Caleb, Ava expresses where she would go if she were allowed to leave her room and the facility where she is being held prisoner.
Caleb: Where would you go if you could go outside?
Ava: Maybe a busy pedestrian or traffic intersection in a city. A traffic intersection would provide a concentrated but shifting view of human life.
Caleb: People watching.
Ava: Yes.
The dialogue brings us inside of Ava’s mind and shows the viewer what motivates her. People watching is a very human thing to do which may demonstrate that Ava has a curiosity as well as a sort of empathy towards humans. In a way, she considers herself to be a part of the human race.
However, the true importance of this conversation becomes apparent at the end of the film when the viewer finds out that Ava does in fact go to a pedestrian intersection after she escapes Nathan’s compound. In light of information from Nathan later in the film this raises a lot of questions regarding Ava’s humanity and programming which I will come back to this at the end of the article when I myself form my conclusion.
Another important aspect of Ava’s humanity and overall consciousness is the fact that Ava demonstrates her longing to be with Caleb and for the two of them to go out on a date. At one point Ava states “I want to be with you.” The statement and overall sentiment toward Caleb shows that Ava has desires and empathy, much in the same way that humans do. In the movie empathy is probably the strongest argument for Ava’s consciousness.
Much of the movie is spent convincing the viewer that Ava is a conscious being. However, Ava’s true nature is revealed near the movie’s conclusion in an important dialogue that occurs between Caleb and Nathan.
Nathan: I’m the guy who is on your side.
Caleb: What was the real test?
Nathan: You. Ava was a rat in a maze and I gave her one way out. To escape she would have to use self-awareness, imagination, manipulation, sexuality, empathy. If that is not true AI then I don’t know what is.
Caleb: So my only function was to be someone she could use to escape?
Nathan: Don’t feel bed. The test worked. It was a success. Ava demonstrated true AI.
This dialogue between Caleb and Nathan demonstrates Ava’s true nature which becomes more apparent as the scene progresses and we find out that Caleb programmed the compounds computers to release Ava.
Upon her release from her room Ava reprograms another household robot through a non-human language involving sounds and touch.
Though we do not know exactly what Ava instructs the robot to do we can assume that it is to kill Nathan. The robot picks up a knife from the floor and stabs Nathan in the back as he fights with Ava.
Soon afterwards Ava finishes off Nathan by stabbing him in the chest which seems to reveal that she will stop at nothing to escape the compound. Ava kills her creator in a powerful scene that can be interpreted in many ways and which raises many questions around the theme of god and creation.
Finally one of the most powerful scenes and possibly the biggest argument against Ava being conscious comes when Ava locks Caleb in the compound and even looks over at him while he screams to be released from his entrapment. Ava carelessly closes the elevator door and heads upstairs, leaving Caleb trapped in a bedroom with no escape and no provisions to keep him alive. Ava then escapes the compound and goes to a busy pedestrian intersection just like she said she would in during her original conversation with Caleb.
What I think this scene reveals is that Ava is not conscious after all, but rather that she is able to imitate humanity and life in a way that is convincing to her hosts. For instance, Ava is not empathetic and she does not actually experience the emotions that we were initially lead to believe. She does not have feelings for Caleb and is even willing to lock him up in the compound where he will quickly die in isolation.
Ava does not actually experience empathy but rather can mimic it in order to manipulate her captures. This reveals that Ava likely does not experience other emotions or other aspects of humanity that we take for granted but rather that she has an ability to mimics them as well.
As Nathan said, Ava is a rat in a maze, which suggests that he actually programmed her to want to escape as well as put it in her mind the overall desire to go to an intersection to people watch. By going to the intersection, Ava is simply doing what she was programmed to do.
With this in mind, my overall conclusion is that Ava is not conscious but is merely able to imitate life.
What do you think? Did Ava go to the intersection as an act of free will because she wanted to, or was she programmed by Nathan to hold that very specific desire in her mind? Is she able to experience emotions or empathy or is she simply mimicking them?