Tech Explained: Here’s a simplified explanation of the latest technology update around Tech Explained: AI Summit glorifies technology, but in movies and shows, big tech is Beelzebub in Simple Termsand what it means for users..
Young people are turning to ChatGPT for dating advice, wannabe home chefs are turning to YouTube for recipes, state actors filling social media spaces with propaganda messages, conspiracy theorists finding their own followers, and religions taking advantage of obscure texts (or are they made up completely) to share miracles or scare us into spending money on rituals. We also see cute AI cat/animal videos, and yes, awful, cringe content that you must watch because you are compelled to share it with your bestie, because they gleefully share the worst reels they find.
I often compare myself to Colonel Jessup from the brilliant film A Few Good Men (and let’s be honest, Tom Cruise has never been this hot!), who yells at the young lawyer, and to paraphrase: ‘You sleep soundly because men like me stand on the walls and protect you.’
I watch all kinds of shows and movies, so you don’t have to kiss those thousand frogs. You just watch the prince among shows and movies.
And since we live in an interconnected world, it is but natural that movies and shows will use or refer to technology and social media. Of course, you are going to groan and sigh at your kids who are so buried in their phones that they text you instead of ringing the doorbell. Of course, social media is being misused (not the cringe content), but by Jamtara cousins who are duping the elderly and the stupid amongst us.
The AI summit is showcasing all kinds of awesome advances in technology, and we have stars in our eyes. It’s not that I am afraid of technology, but I am wary of everyone going headfirst into these deep waters without worrying about simple things like data privacy. When tech is used for good things like surgery and bomb clearing robots, food-serving robots, it’s a fabulous thing. But the idea of being chased by evil-looking robot dogs is terrifying. Thankfully, I am never stepping out into the real world. Happy to share the evils of hi-tech, AI and social media. So watch these and let us know you are a believer.
MILLION FOLLOWER DETECTIVE
It’s Taiwanese, and though my Mandarin comprehension is super low, the concept simply resonated with me.
A tarot reader accurately predicts the deaths on the YouTube-like channel and spreads panic and alarm. The detective on the case believes in old-fashioned detective work and hates using phones and technology. But now everyone just video records everything the police do and uploads those videos online. There are deaths, and the detective gets a lot of hate for it. He learns to navigate this world of influencers and content creators with the help of an influencer and a young detective who is from the cybercrime division. Riveting watch this one!
WESTWORLD
Imagine you are in an amusement park where all your dreams come true, and then one robot goes rogue, and you find yourself battling robot snakes, women, and an animatronic Yul Brynner. But that was in the movie. But now there is a show that will make you eat your hat. When you’re hooked, then you too will look at your social media app, suggesting you too join the AI option that they are offering because your best friends and their mums have joined the all-knowing, all-seeing AI. This is the trailer for season one.
THE GREAT HACK
You may have skipped this mind-blowing documentary because you want to watch K-dramas and swoon over Coffee Prince or Vincenzo. You are right, but you should watch this simply because you too believe, just like I did, that your phone is listening to you, and that’s why you keep getting ads for alternative medicines for diabetes and house cleaning sprays?!
Sounds innocuous, but when big tech companies begin tracking all that you do, all that you buy, and all that you consume online, how easy it is for them to fill your head with misinformation and disinformation to us and earn billions?
THE HATER
Most of us lead unremarkable lives. Some of us are thankful for it, too. But when you fall for peer pressure, you want to tell the whole world that you are actually superior to everyone and can avenge every insult heaped upon you. K-dramas that begin with cyberbullying in high school show up as great revenge dramas for grown-ups. But this film is a little unnerving. It’s about this Polish teen who is able to bend social media, and hence very successful in a smear campaign against a rejection will make you switch off your phone. How many times have you heard someone say, “You could have been someone.”
NOT OKAY
Keeping up with the Joneses is old. Nowadays, people only want to be noticed. Young folk go through all kinds of things to be on everyone’s feed. What happens when you are caught?
The repercussions drag you further into a black hole, and you cannot get out of the web of lies you created. They told us you would hate the protagonist, Danni, and we do. But aren’t we all faking photos of food, wedding pics, holiday pics, as if we were all living the high life? Aren’t we all guilty of ‘liking’ and ‘sending hearts’ to posts of friends while we roll our eyes because she’s not there? Isn’t there a little bit of Danni in all of us?
DON’T F**K WITH CATS
The Internet is not all bad, you people! The Internet can become a community when something so offensive – such as strangling a cat and uploading the video – happens, and you have to do something. You have seen many tiny videos like ‘four miscreants throw a dog off the roof of a building’ blow up into viral news items that force the authorities to act and punish the perpetrators. This docu series is about how a short video of a young unidentifiable man strangling a helpless cat earned him the ire of netizens and how his lewd messages which challenged people to ‘catch me if you can’ galvanised unlikely heroes who pursued small clues – from a blanket on the bed to a vacuum cleaner in the room to track him down and get justice for the kitten.
BLACK MIRROR
That our future is dystopian is a given. If you are part of the population that holds this to be a truth, then you must not miss Black Mirror. There are seven seasons of the marvellous mind-bending show that takes the reality of hi-tech and pushes the boundaries of our beliefs and fears. Especially because most of us are barely learning what it means to leave a digital footprint that is the size of the moon when we ‘like’ all kinds of videos on social media, without giving a thought to any and all consequences. Several episodes of this awesome show will show you how rogue tech will endanger us all someday.
LOVE, DEATH AND ROBOTS
Seasons of chaos and civilization that are on the edge of madness. Twenty minutes each, these stories are so beautifully told, you will find your own truth in there somewhere, buried among the rubble of your beliefs.
David Fincher is an executive producer of this Emmy-winning series, and you will definitely fall in love with at least one character who says, “Humans built robots, and then the robots killed them!”
THE FALLEN SUN
Isn’t it marvellous how we begin to love certain characters – Luther in this case – and then accept the darkness inside their heads? How do we empathise with their battles and then shout our encouragement by throwing popcorn at the TV, uncaring that we will have to pick up the scattered caramel bits from the floor and everywhere else?
Idris Elba plays Luther, and this time he’s being haunted by the killer who enjoys torturing him with mind games seldom seen on TV shows. Do watch Luther to understand the demons inside the detective’s head.
So whether you are running around in your neighbourhood yelling, “Our democracy has been hacked!” or despairing because your elderly parents will give away their credit card number and passwords because someone told them they just won a car, we are all living in a world where staying one step ahead of technology is not possible.
By the time you have paid the local fruit guy with your fancy card that needs to be just ‘tapped’, not ‘swiped’, you must understand that by the time you get home from your morning walk, cybercrooks have emptied your bank account! Now that I have put the fear of rogue tech in your head, let me go back to the videos of a blue-haired lad and his team of good hackers and pranksters who are helping kill refund scams that rob unsuspecting folk of their money.
(Manisha Lakhe is a freelance writer with Mint. She writes on movies, shows, travel, and more.)