The show “Humans” encapsulates all of my beliefs about robots since the start of this class. I was shocked to see how parallel the portrayal of Anitta’s displacement of the mother was to be beliefs/fears of AI. At the very beginning of the episode, it was apparent that humans were the superior beings as the father simply said he was “going shopping” and bought Anitta to take care of the house. As she integrated into the household, it seemed as if she began to contest and challenge the mom. This idea parallels my fear, and the fear we have discussed earlier in this class, that as humanoids become integrated into their environment they will begin to adapt the customs and practices of humans.
An example of this is when the mother finds Anitta reading to the daughter and putting her to bed. The mother confronts her and tells her to never read to her daughter again, this is an example of a human trying to retain superiority and prevent displacement by robots. IN response, Anitta assures her that she must value and obey the orders of her owner; referring to Asimov’s law. Although I have these fears of AI displacing humans and replacing them in society, there are moments in the film that ensure that robots are not considered human.
When the peace worker visits Dr Milikan’s house, she comments about how the house was so large for just one person, knowing that he had a robot. Dr. Milikan responded and did not make reference to his robot, “son” being a human. Dr. attempts to humanize his robot by calling him son due to the loss he has endured with the passing of his wife, but the viewer is reassured throughout that the robot does not have merit as a human.
Towards the end of the episode, the husband tells the wife that he did not get the robot to act as the wife, he simply got it to take care of the house; a sign that humans are using robots for their own personal gain. Despite the family’s attempts to dehumanize Anita and robots as a species, I would anticipate the rise of robots and their acceptance as “humans” in future episodes; a fear i have of developments being made in AI in today’s technology world.