James Cameron took the Vietnam War and put it in space with Aliens: Return, and George Lucas took the Vietnam War and put it in space with Return of the Jedi. I thought I could do it the other way around: take science fiction and put it on the ground, in Vietnam,” confides British director Gareth Edwards (Nuneaton, 1975) about The Creator. A film set in 2065 in which Western humans ruthlessly confront artificial intelligence (AI), robots that have developed a civilization in Southeast Asia, in New Asia, where they are not prohibited. Edwards, one of the references of science fiction after Godzilla and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, puts robots into play that are sometimes more human than their opponents in a film starring Gemma Chan, John David Washington, a ferocious Allison Janney as an American soldier in search of the creator of the AI and the girl Madeleine Yuna Voyles as the robot Alfie.
Of course, Edwards, who presented his film in Madrid, is not at all afraid of the evolution of artificial intelligence. “Whenever there is a breakthrough technology, everyone worries, but if there is ever a problem it is usually because humans misuse it. I am optimistic about AI. If there is ever a problem with it on a large scale it will be because a human misused it for bad reasons. AI, at the moment, has no objectives. It is created to do what we want. He is a kind of slave,” he says.
Nor is he concerned if one day the singularity occurs and artificial intelligence surpasses us. “In theory, that day should come, but is it a year away or will we never see it in our lifetime? All we are is a network of connections, and that at some point can be recreated on a computer. At some point there should be an AI completely like us. And then, in theory, you can become stronger and smarter. I like to think that if something is smarter than us, it will be better than us. Many of the bad things that happen are due to stupidity, not intelligence. So I hope they help us and find better ways to move forward.” Are they our evolution? “Honestly, maybe. As long as they are alive and conscious like us, what's the difference? We come from apes and small mammals. “I don’t think mammals look at us angry because we are now the caretakers of the planet, or at least we are supposed to take care of it.”
In the film, the futuristic tanks that exterminate the robots in scenes that resemble the Vietnam War are from the US army. Edwards points out that the film “is a critique of the superpowers and the way in which, by trying to do good and attacking enemies in other countries, they destroy many innocent people in the process,” but, he clarifies, “the reason why What the US puts on the tanks is because we did test screenings and people were confused about who was in them. Oh really? It's obviously the West, USA! The simplest thing was to write it on a tank.”
“I love the United States, I live there and my girlfriend is American, but it's difficult to make a science fiction movie and not point out real-world scenarios. The actors and the studio want to understand every detail of the conflict. And the easiest way is to say that it is like Afghanistan, but in Vietnam with robots. Or that Osama bin Laden is the creator and everyone wants to kill him. We think he is evil and his followers think he is the savior,” he smiles.
And he adds that “movies have the opportunity to show you both sides and I think the idea that we solve the world's problems by killing the bad guy, in this case the AI, is a mistake. The problem is only solved by understanding the bad guy and that maybe you are just as bad for them, who feel that they are the good guys. Seeing the other point of view is the way out.”
