The Final - The Duality of Humanity and A.I

December 10, 2022

One of the oldest questions in the history of human history is simply: “what defines a human?” Biologically, humans are defined by the species, homo sapiens. Philosophically, humans are physical beings, as a person in relation to other persons, to society, to God, and to the end, or purpose, of human life. One of the human race's most defining characteristics is their ability to defy and overcome odds, but what happens when synthetic beings start defying? What happens when something inhuman gains sentience?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a science fiction concept that has become more tangible within the last two decades. The idea of artificial intelligence gaining sentience has permeated in public consciousness thanks to such influential films like 2001: A Space Odyssey, which introduced the idea of an independent thinking supercomputer to the populace. Since, the theme of A.I. has taken over a large bulk of media. Our goal was to analyze how defiance in A.I.’s exists across mediums, and how many share distinct similarities to other works.

For me, I wanted to analyze the A.I. in my favorite video game of all time, Horizon Zero Dawn. Horizon Zero Dawn is an open world, science fiction video game created by Guerrilla Studios. The game takes place on earth in the year 3040 where modern human society has fallen and human tribes now walk the earth with dinosaur-like robots. Following the main character, Aloy, the player comes to find why humanity (the Old Ones) ended and why the world is in the state that it is. It started when Faro Industries, the largest robot producer in the 2040s, introduced a line of “peacekeeping” robots, who functioned as a hive mind and were able to be self-sufficient and self-replicating. Inevitably, a glitch permeated the robots, allowing them to replicate unregulated and begin to consume biomass to keep their systems running. These unchecked robots would eliminate all life on earth in just 15 months. This is where Dr. Elizabet Sobek comes in with an idea. It was impossible to hack into the robots, it would take years, and the self replicating nature of the robots meant that it was impossible to destroy them all with combat power. Her solution is to create a self automated, conscious A.I, named GAIA, who would be responsible for returning life to earth, centuries after the current inhabitant of earth have died. And it worked. The robots were shut down and life returned to earth. Until a rogue signal awoke the HADES AI, forcing GAIA to destroy herself to prevent his spread. Not before she could create a clone of Elizabet, Aloy, who would have to save the world once more.

Horizon Zero Dawn examines the dichotomy between sentient AI and their abilities to be good or evil. Typically in the media, sentient AI are antagonists towards humanity, aiming to destroy and corrupt it. Horizon Zero Dawn makes the idea of AI more complex; AI are not only the destroyers of the world, but AI are also the savior of the world. GAIA is the savior of the world not once, but twice. She was the one who repopulated the earth and created Aloy to save the world from HADES. HADES, on the other hand, is a rogue AI who breaks from GAIA to complete his programing, to re-terraform and return the earth to a blank state. I believe the dichotomy between these AI entities perfectly encapsulates the dichotomy of humanity, as seen in the past by humans Elizabet Sobek and Ted Faro. Elizabet is a person who, through her intelligence and selflessness, saves the future of the human race. Ted, on the other hand, selfishly sabotaged the APOLLO AI to hide his mistakes from the past. Elizabet Sobek and GAIA are creators whilst HADES and Ted Faro destroyed life.

Elizabet Versus Faro's Impact on life: