Blade Runner 2049 (Companionship/Romance with an AI)

Brief description

 K has gotten home, he's showering, changing and talking to what sounds like his girlfriend or wife, but at 17.14 we see a hologram materialise and we realise that it's a computer voice he's been talking to the whole time. She (Joi) seems to be an AI that looks and behaves completely human (except for the flickering). He has bought her a mobile emanator, and takes her out to the rooftop of the building. She seems to be able to feel rain on her skin (in the scene on the roof), and the scene becomes very emotional, with both of them showing physical signs of affections  (looks, caresses, kisses), until they are interrupted by an incoming message for him that freezes her and starts flickering next to her.
This is contrasted with a giant hologram of/commercial for Joi later on in the film depicting how Joi can be anything one wants her to be, which would imply that what the viewer has seen of their romance is actually not real, as she is programmed that way. This raises some larger questions about the nature of AI and about human relationships.

Work that the situation appears in

Title Publication Type Year Creator
Blade Runner 2049 Narrative, Movie Denis Villeneuve
Aesthetic characteristics
Machine P.O.V
Not machine P.O.V.
Notes
I tried to distinguish what verbs belong to the tech AI and what to the character Joi, So to the Tech AI I added upgraded as K takes the emanator in use. I also added the verb projected to the AI tech. I left the verbs Love and Loved to Joi the Ai character as the tech is more the deceiving one as it can be interpreted as an illusion. I also added Hologram to the and made the tech AI & Hologram. (Linda)

Authored by

UUID
9dc2fba5-5858-4d99-a1a1-0ec3c12c9b6a