A fully CGI short film created by BLR VFX as a precursor to a proposed feature film, the first teaser for Keloid has just arrived online and it is impressive stuff. While you can spot that it's animation easily enough it is nonetheless strong, nearly photorealistic stuff that captures the energy of handheld action photography, which is no easy task. Take a look at the trailer below.
Synopsis given by the creators:
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky wrote about an experiment which had to do with Artificial Inteligence. In a near future, man will have given birth to machines that are able to rewrite their codes, to improve themselves, and, why not, to dispense with them. This idea sounded a little bit distant to some critic voices, so an experiment was to be done: keep the AI sealed in a box from which it could not get out except by one mean: convincing a human guardian to let it out.
What if, as Yudkowsky states, 'Humans are not secure'? Could we chess match our best creation to grant our own survival?. Would man be humble enough to accept he was superseded, to look for primitive ways to find himself back, to cure himself from a disease that’s on his own genes? How to capture a force we voluntarily set free? What if mankind worst enemy were humans?.
In a near future, we will cease to be the dominant race. In a near future, we will learn to fear what is to come.
EY's quoted in the trailer too. I guess this is a good thing. No such thing as bad publicity. :)
Will EY sue for IP infringement to get a nice settlement for SIAI? (Whethere there's a valid case depends on the extent to which they copied his write-up, of course.)
Are you suggesting that he should sue?
I can think of three main reasons to sue:
* Some money or royalties
* More acknowledgement for EY and/or SI in the final product
* Guarding intellectual property
However, suing runs the risk of stopping the film being made/released, if the settlement is too large. If the film is made, and properly conveys the futility of trying to keep an AI boxed, then it has the potential to be good publicity for SI and (un)friendly AI research.
So, rather than sue, if SI were to take more of a supportive approach, encouraging the film, and (importantly) encouraging scientific accuracy, then they might be able to get a better result, beyond just a few dollars here or there (although the degree to which EY wants to control his IP could outweigh this; however, most of his work on his website is under a Creative Commons license, which suggests this might not be a problem).
Also, SI can probably get EY/SI to feature more prominently in the credits/on the website by taking a (small) advisory role in the film. (It could be part of their public outreach program...)
Currently only one teaser trailer and some info is set up on the site. Watch it. Awesome! Right?
Source:
Synopsis given by the creators:
EY's quoted in the trailer too. I guess this is a good thing. No such thing as bad publicity. :)