Will a hyperadvanced AI be a danger to humanity? That’s nothing compared to the threat posed by military contractors.
That’s the implicit conclusion of Tron: Ares, the third installment in the series that began with 1982’s Tron. This threequel inverts the previous films’ formula: Rather than humans trying to enter a digital world, Ares tells of an AI (Jared Leto) from inside “the Grid” finding its way into meatspace. It’s a sci-fi spin on a fairy tale formula quite familiar to Disney, which made all three of the Tron films. The AI wants to be a real boy.
Standing in Ares’ way is the tech executive (Evan Peters) who built him and intends to sell him to the highest bidder as a supersoldier who could be easily resurrected infinite times. Having achieved self-awareness, Ares decides it would be more meaningful to live just once. The message is as unsubtle as the film’s pulsating Nine Inch Nails soundtrack: It’s the humans who develop and use AI for malicious ends, not the tech itself, who should worry us.
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