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We live in an age where some people choose romantic relationships with AI chatbots over human partners. It seems unlikely that they would care if their AI companions failed the ‘Turing Test’, a measure designed to determine whether a machine can be as perceptive and intuitive as a human. For programmers, though, passing it is imperative.
Written and directed by Jaschar Marktanner, the short film ‘Turing Test’ follows a programmer’s efforts to train their AI to fool colleagues into believing it is human. Yet the AI’s unpredictable behavior becomes frustratingly challenging. It could either be a glitch or maybe the AI playing its human.
Running under seven minutes, the film opens in a stark, minimalist room containing only two white chairs. Soon, Sophie (Marlene Fahnster) and Alan (Richard Lingscheidt) take their seats, engaging in a heated debate about the ‘Turing Test’. Strikingly, their exchange lacks any trace of genuine human emotion, except for a few seconds, where one of them lets their mask slip.
From the moment their interaction begins, viewers are left wondering who is human and who is AI, especially since the conversation is clearly designed to push that very question. The ‘Turing Test’ is already underway.
Both Fahnster and Lingscheidt deliver performances so eerily mechanical that one might believe they were actual humanoid machines. The film is slightly reminiscent of ‘Ex Machina’, where the Turing Test was central, underscored by the tagline: To erase the line between man and machine is to obscure the line between men and gods.
The final minute reveals the true human, and the stark contrast between the programmer’s cluttered office and the sterile digital space of the AI interactions creates a striking visual divide. However, the short runtime keeps the film from truly pushing the envelope in exploring the blurred lines between programmers and their machines.
Overall, Jaschar Marktanner’s short is a taut little film that edges into techno-horror territory in its climax, delivering a creepily-comic last second twist.
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