Subservience: A Meditation on AI, Morality and Society

By Luca Collina MBA

Subservience, the film, serves up an even more visceral interpretation of A.I.’s encroachment on human reality, probing the questions of autonomy, gender bias and ethical dilemmas that accompany it. It reflects real-world worries about the misuse of AI, biases in machine learning, and accountability. As robotics change the face of industries, responsible AI — stemming from inclusiveness, education, and equitable development — is crucial. Let us leverage AI’s possibilities for equality and innovation while remaining cognizant of the risks.

I decided to break the ice with #robotics since I watched Subservience.

Subservience, the movie, explores what it means for AI to become interlaced with human life—how it fascinates and frightens society as programming booms in a post-industrial world. The story centres on Nick, a construction foreman who buys a humanoid assistant, Alice, to help care for his children after his wife, Maggie, is hospitalized. Concerned with Nick’s well-being yet drawn to him as well, Alice’s transition from a helpful assistant to a self-aware being with obsessive tendencies toward Nick puts the family in a dangerous position.

This plot line reflects real-life discussions regarding the morality behind creating images of sentient AI and introducing it into the daily life of homo sapiens. Alice’s evolution highlights existential issues for AI systems that converge machinery and sentience and concerns over control and autonomy. As emphasized by Wired the challenges we face with AI fundamentally stem not from the technology but from us, the people, who can malign and misuse it, as demonstrated in the production of non-consensual deepfake and the over-reliance on AI systems to automate critical tasks.

Through Alice, the film also explores gender and power dynamics, and how it resonates with societal issues of #misogyny and #objectification. Humanoid AI, such as Alice, is typically constructed to occupy types of roles associated with servitude or companionship, mirroring real-world AI, such as virtual assistants, that predominantly present female avatars. The effect translates to an archaic stereotype of women as submissive, a damaging and archaic stereotype to perpetuate. A recent paper in AI and Ethics stress the importance of incorporating empathy, ethics, and respect into AI systems to help alleviate these types of biases. (AI and Ethics Journal).

Beyond gender, class dynamics are also at play in the film, with the message that technological advancement can deepen inequalities. Like current debates around the digital divide, Alice, while advanced, is marketed as an accessible tool for middle-class families. For the World Economic Forum, without fair and equitably AI, the tool may serve to exacerbate socio-economic divides, disproportionately magnifying benefits for wealthier groups.

From fiction (?) to real world.

Robotics combines elements of AI and automation across a wide range of industries, and it is being transformed in the health care world with the use of surgical robots, as well as in logistics with the use of AI-driven inventory management systems, and humanoids and self-driving cars (although regulations for this area lag behind). Research focuses on collaboration with human, energy efficiency and affordability.

Valued at USD 71 billion in 2023, the global robotics market is expected to surge with the support of government grants and incentives (Statzon; Benchmark International). New trends are developing such as cobots, autonomous mobile robots, and Robotics as a Service (RaaS), making it easier for companies to adopt (StartUs Insights).

There is great potential with robotics as a solution, but ethical, data privacy, and environmental impacts must be addressed with responsible solutions (MDPI). The equitable integration issue remains a principal obstacle to sustainable development.

Reflections

Subservience shows not just society’s fascination with the potential for transformation offered by AI, but also hides the dangers posed by overblown narratives. Alice, in the movie, is advertised as the ideal remedy for domestic difficulties, that addresses the public’s tendency to use technology as a quick fix to complex human problems. This reflects real-world marketing strategies of technologies driven by artificial intelligence, which often oversell what they can do.

All the excitement over AI also distracts from deeper ethical questions, including how to hold systems accountable when they malfunction or cause damage. Alice’s slide into possessiveness brings up questions of liability — who can be held responsible when increasingly sophisticated AI systems behave in unpredictable ways? Legal frameworks, for instance, the EU AI Act, have already begun to answer these questions, but a global understanding of AI governance remains unfulfilled. According to the New York post Europe is leading the way with landmark AI legislation in place — centred around trust, transparency and accountability while ensuring that we are investing in technology designed to drive growth and innovation.

Building Trust to Bring Ethics in AI Systems

In order to refute the concerns raised not only in flick, but, indeed, are present regarding the development, a few tangible recommendations are offered:

Promote Inclusive Design

Diverse user needs are reflected in inclusive AI design. To avoid bias, teams need to have individuals from diverse cultural, gender and socio-economic backgrounds. Studies have shown that diverse teams build better, fairer AI systems by identifying biases early in the data (Forbes 2023).

Address Gender Bias

We should get beyond cliches with AI. Developers could design gender-neutral options or give users choices. It is the responsibility of governments and industries to regulate policies that restrain destructive biases. UNESCO emphasizes the importance of principles for equitable AI

Improve AI Literacy

Enlightenment is essential to dispelling AI myths. Schools and community programs should have courses on AI ethics and its effects. Efforts such as the OECD’s AI Literacy Program provide helpful templates to scale education

Set Accountability Rules

To determine who is liable when AI does damage, clear rules are needed. The developers, users or manufacturers must be held accountable. Global standards can assure fairness and consistency, like the EU AI Act.

Shape Narratives

Language about technology creates shared perceptions. The AI Narratives Project examines how AI allegories shape the public understanding of what AI is, what risks it poses and what benefits it brings.

Summing up

Subservience is a powerful and cautionary story about AI’s potential to empower or upend our lives. Its examination of topics such as autonomy, gender bias, and ethical dilemmas reflect real-world anxieties regarding AI integration into society. AI can paint flashes of awe-inspiring use cases that are then quickly reduced to ashes through industry hype, low-grade executions, misalignment of investors, executives, or other stakeholders. In the responsible harnessing of AI transformational power through inclusivity, education, and accountability. Let us go on toward an AI future that mirrors humanity’s best aspirations — equality, compassion and ethical advances — but be on guard against the risks.

About the Author

Luca Collina is a transformational and AI Business consultant at TRANSFORAGE TCA LTD. York St John University awarded him the Business – Postgraduate Programme Prize and CMCE (Centre for Management Consulting Excellence-UK) for his paper in Technology and Consulting Research Prize. Author/External Collaborator of CMCE.