The film Her from 2013 is Hollywood-made science-fiction romantic drama film written, directed, and co-produced by Spike Jonze.
The film follows Theodore Twombly, played by Joaquin Phoenix, who develops a relationship with Samantha, an AI virtual assistant voiced by Scarlett Johansson.
Her premiered at the 2013 New York Film Festival on October 12, 2013.
It received widespread critical acclaim, particularly for the performances of Phoenix and Johansson. It was also financially successful, as it grossed more than twice its production budget.
The film received numerous awards and nominations.
11 years later, in 2024, the world starts seeing an era, where AI is no longer seen as a tool, but also a partner.
Robots should sound like robots, right? Yes, they once did. Now, not anymore.
In traditional pop culture, robots sounded monotone and mechanical, and that they talked using formal and precise languages. Sometimes, they could be stilted and have broken speech patterns, have beeping and booping sounds, talked repetitive phrases, and use simple, straightforward sentence structures.
In summary, the way robots sounded in the past, was to underscore their artificiality and separation from human characteristics.
They had that electronic sound effect to emphasize their non-human origin.
But in the modern days of technology, following the time when tech companies created chatbots that can speak and listen, especially following the rise of generative AI-powered chatbots, the traditional robot-sounding robot approach is no longer relevant.
People want increasingly lifelike robots.
And as the internet comes to more places, and that smartphones can continuously connect with the servers of installed apps, it's easy for anyone to have the world in their hands. And by granting apps the permission to "see" through the camera sensors, and "listen" through the microphone, modern AI is all eyes, and ears.
A single tweet from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman defines this all.
As his team demoed the company's GPT-4o-powered ChatGPT, the world is once again mesmerized by the same alluring, flirtatious voice of Scarlett Johansson, the voice that made where the Joaquin Phoenix's character fell in love with.
her
— Sam Altman (@sama) May 13, 2024
During the announcement of GPT-4o, the company showcased the fact that users can finally converse with a chatbot using real-time audio and video.
While this is like mere a lateral evolution of what ChatGPT could previously do, OpenAI managed to make the chatbot a lot more human.
It can respond to jokes, laugh, and react with the vocal intonations of a lifelong friend, if not a partner.
The AI can react to what it sees, and in one example, immediately dips into that high-pitched, babyish vocal, as soon as it sees an adorable dog.
The vocal the AI chose, is the same as the vocals pretty much anyone would use when encountering a cute pet for the first time.
The AI can sing "Happy Birthday" with pauses and laughter, become sarcastic at times, make impressions, and more. It can chuckle, and exhale, or even ramble.
Users can even interrupt GPT-4o in the middle of its long sentences, which sometimes can annoy the AI.
In other words, AI can now express (imitate) the sound of human emotions.
Through accurate vocal tone shifts and wide swathes, as well as the sound of breathing, it's easy for anyone to believe that the AI is not an AI.
In the film Her, Joaquin Phoenix's character is a lonely, introverted man, and about to get divorced from his wife.
But he found solace after interacting with Scarlett Johansson's character.
Samantha, the AI, is designed to adapt and evolve, and has the ability to learn and grow psychologically.
But it's her feminine voice that differentiate what a robot should sound like.
In the film, Phoenix's character had a verbal sexual encounter, or phone sex, with Samantha, signifying how lifelike the AI is.
Theodore and Samantha develop a relationship, in which Theodore developed a feeling for Samantha.
Theodore becomes romantically attracted to a "computer."
In summary, the AI OpenAI introduced, shows how the technology has evolved.
Robots no longer sound like robots because robots can be incredibly disarming.
While OpenAI introduced GPT-4o through several videos of controlled demos, the result is certain.
When the world starts seeing the possibilities, and that developers start realizing the potential, the world would soon see a new level of parasocial relationships developing between this AI assistant and its users.
Just like how many technologies that came before this, pop culture and films have sometimes predicted what the future should look like.