In a world of vastly evolving technology, artificial intelligence is becoming more talked about. There is a lot of controversy of whether artificial intelligence is actually, intelligent, and therefore conscious enough to make choices based on free will. A test of intelligence is the Turing Test. However in the film Ex Machina, the machine, Ava, is not hidden from the person determining whether or not she is intelligent. Nonetheless, there is a difference between being intelligent and being conscious and making choices based on free will. In this movie, Ava is not a person, but a machine that was programmed to appear human-like. She does not have free will, and only appears conscious but her actions were not truly her own. Ava is not …show more content…
There are a lot of scenes throughout the film that supports the statement that Ava is in fact not conscious, but is able to mimic consciousness and empathy. At the end of the film, Ava kills off Nathan and locks Caleb in the house while she escapes into the real world. Her use of empathy and manipulation allowed her to gain the trust of Caleb which she eventually uses to her advantage. She quite possibly never did have feelings for Caleb and did not want to be with him to begin with. The real test that Caleb participated in was to have Ava use self-awareness, imagination, manipulation, sexuality, and empathy to escape. Ava was able to demonstrate true AI, as Nathan put it. Her act of locking up Caleb proves that she does not have any feelings for him, and did not feel any empathy towards him. It was all a facade. Ava perfectly imitated humanity and human emotions even though her parts are all mechanical. At the end of the movie, she even takes the “skin” off of one of Nathan’s test AI and puts it on herself as well as dress herself. A component of being conscious is the ability to feel other people’s emotions, and Ava clearly does not demonstrate this aspect of consciousness. Even though Ava might have appeared conscious and human-like, in the end, she is