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Documentary The Thinking Game charts the rise of AI through the story of DeepMind, a leading AI lab founded by Demis Hassabis, an earnest but likeable tech genius who has devoted his life to “solving” the mystery of artificial general intelligence (AGI).
Recruiting the best minds in the field, they seek to create systems that can outperform human potential. Hassabis and his colleagues provide a passionate and easy-to-follow history of their endeavours, from training a program (or “agent” as they call it) to win at chess to harnessing AI assisted science to solve some of the world’s biggest health problems.
Listening to their projections, it’s easy to become caught up in the possibilities. But implementation is another conversation. “You can’t look at gunpowder and only make a firecracker,” argues AI-sceptic writer Kenneth Cukier, who asserts that something this powerful will inevitably fall into the hands of bad actors.
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Just as the developers praise AI without being evangelical, its critics are given their time without resorting to nightmare scenarios. Hassabis is insistent that their breakthroughs should not be used for commercial or military gain. He seems sincere in those motives, although somewhat too trusting of his benefactors in terms of whether they will keep their promises. It remains to be seen what role Google, DeepMind’s owner, might play in the company’s future.
The Thinking Game won’t allay any fears about this new technology being used for wrongdoing, but it does at least portray the intentions behind its development. A well-explained tribute to innovation that will be accessible to even the least tech-savvy.
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