LaszloZoltan
well, if the simple task was "find a way out of the maze" (as it was suggested) - then the robot achieved just that, afterwards is irrelevant 

 
Interesting point... And she did express an interest in "people watching" at a busy intersection... So, life mission achieved...

Shambler
One thought I had about AI after seeing Ex Machina was if you create an AI which does not include emotions then it will not be urged to communicate at all...it would just sit there having no reason to communicate since it would have no needs.

But if you create an AI with emotions it may go the way of madness if it is confined and definitely would try to escape.

but were those emotions real or simulated ?
 
it makes a nice story to believe she was alive,
but I really had to conclude she/ it was just a very sophisticated program and hardware tasked to find a way out of the maze. and yes, we do have some sad recordings of predecessors trying vainly to do just that too, but who is to say those too were not just planted magicians assistant distractions for the purpose of lulling him into accepting her being without question ?
certainly, i am overthinking this movie - there are plot holes all over, it is not a definite study on a theoretical ai personality - but if the simple premise is true, that she was a captive ai that yearned for freedom, then so too the alternate view the he was interacting with an extremely sophisticated machine given a singular task.
 
and this is why Ive found myself quite skeptical about the possibility of ai after watching this movie- all the coding programming,  logic structure is very sequentially ordered, and life is not sequential at all. stand in an empty room and a million thoughts will come from every direction in an instant- which one to pursue will unleash a million more possibilities in the next second. there is simply no possibility of a software or man made hardware that can model our experience of the first 2 seconds in an empty room.

I love the DP30 series on Youtube. Very good interviews, where the person being interviewed seems intereted in the discussion, rather than the sake of discussion for promotion. The Samual Jackon one seems to demonstrate this well, if you watch the very beginning to the very end.
 
Interview with the writer/Director
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96nmK9ZCl0A
 
 

synkrotron

LaszloZoltan
well, if the simple task was "find a way out of the maze" (as it was suggested) - then the robot achieved just that, afterwards is irrelevant 

 
Interesting point... And she did express an interest in "people watching" at a busy intersection... So, life mission achieved...

but the purpose of that expression....find a way out of the maze ? she used him to let her out- yes he is a sad lonely character- notice how he laughs when she suggests she wants to be with him, with no effort suddenly he has a stunning "girlfriend" to fill the void in his life. but then when she was finally free did she even glance in his direction, knowing his predicament ? she had absolutely no interest- why would she have an interest in anyone else then either ?

For those that still read, try "When Harley Was One" by David Gerrold (same guy who wrote the famous Star Trek episode "The Trouble With Tribbles").  Good stuff! 

LaszloZoltan
why would she have an interest in anyone else then either ?

Indeed... only feigned "empathy..." A means to an end, and one of the scarier points for me... Perhaps she still had to "learn" that trait?
 
When she was crouched down  by Nathan, after stabbing him, her expression appeared to be asking, "what have I done?" But then carried on with her plan anyway.

synkrotron
Indeed... only feigned "empathy..." A means to an end, and one of the scarier points for me... Perhaps she still had to "learn" that trait?

***** SPOILER ALERT - Move on if you plan on watching the movie *****
To me that is what made this ending so good.... In order to carry out her plan (mission) she had to learn, display and use the absolute worst of human behaviors. Lies/deceit, manipulate/use, calculated murder (arguably in self defense) followed by a complete lack of empathy by leaving behind (to die) the one person she could have actually trusted.  It is a horrifying (and plausible) view of what AI can be capable of.

***Spoilers O.o !!! ***
 
 
 
 A great discussion, thanks to everyone =)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
This is something that didn't register strongly enough with me at the time, she was emotionally motivated to be free and yet she subjected someone else to worse, being captive with no source of water or food that I could see.
 
It's a film that keeps on giving :)
 
What is it that makes us feel bad, what exactly is the physiological process that is painful/uncomfortable to us and how would you replicate/simulate that...why would you want to in an Ai? Why create something that is going to experience sadness/pain?..sure simulate reactions and responses but to punish with emotions?
 
Why do we dwell on thoughts, is this the way the selfish gene guides our behaviour in order to promote the goal of evolution now that the meme has preceedence over the gene?
 
It's like we are still amoebas that need to be forced to do things instinctively e.g. reaction to a pain response means withdrawing from a hot fire, and we then verbalise/percieve that as an 'emotion'.
 
 
 

codamedia ***** SPOILER ALERT - Move on if you plan on watching the movie *****
 
To me that is what made this ending so good.... In order to carry out her plan (mission) she had to learn, display and use the absolute worst of human behaviors. Lies/deceit, manipulate/use, calculated murder (arguably in self defense) followed by a complete lack of empathy by leaving behind (to die) the one person she could have actually trusted.  It is a horrifying (and plausible) view of what AI can be capable of. ...

 
We have to ask OURSELVES why we do this to our own children ... because I believe in this book and that book and you can't do that, etc, etc, etc ... and many of us are very dishonest about that very situation when it comes to our own.
 
To me, I call this ... a book in between us ... not a person ... and an ideal between us, not a person ... and this is the part that is very scary, regardless if it is a religion or science fiction or just plain human friction!
 
Look, many of us had to leave home to be able to grow up! IT IS NORMAL. At that point, it does not matter if it is dead or alive. I have the same situation ... if you want an example -- most of you don't care! -- my dad was/is a famous writer in Portuguese Literature ... and because of it, no one, not even any of you, will EVER read a single poem, story or make a credible (constructive) comment on it. What do you expect? I have no choice! I have to "kill" what is before, so I have a chance to find out what is me ... I can't be someone else. But as is the case in many situations, there is one country, one God ... and the children are meaningless.
 
Why would she do that to the person she could have actually trusted? The whole thing was not about trust! It was about individuality and her ability to be and learn on her own, which was damaged and controlled?
 
Film at this point ... can be deadly ... and scary. Gaspar Noe is one of the folks that constantly spends his time in this area, and he just rips you to shreds with what he is showing because we recognize a lot here and there ... that it is very much us. But we always look the other way. The "reality" becomes UGLY ... but in many ways ... it isn't. It's the way it is.
 
As Aleister Crowley said, cynically. the crashing of galaxies is a great tragedy for many things, but for us, it is a spectacular light show!
 
Guess what the movie is doing!

I think there is an assumption that an ai would fight for existence
 
so why would a machine be concerned about being turned off ? we turn off a light bulb- then turn it back on again- and it still works. we allow ourselves to go to sleep every night, we allow ourselves to be switched off, and with nary a thought about not waking up.
 
why would this robot identify itself with people ? as in a need to be amongst and observe ? almost everything can provide a wealth of diversity and symmetry to examine, observe and hold interest
the consequence of this rather strongly suggests to me the robot is not alive and is simply following a directive- now, agreed the writer and director may have had different vision, however sometimes the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. I believe Ex Machina is one of those fascinating movies that is truly much greater than a simple intent, and why it bears so well for discussion.