Waititi, Ishiguro Discuss 'Klara and the Sun' as Google DeepMind Cites Novel on AI Ethics
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Oct 22
Waititi, Ishiguro Discuss 'Klara and the Sun' as Google DeepMind Cites Novel on AI Ethics
3 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Oct 22
Summary
Taika Waititi and Kazuo Ishiguro used the London Film Festival to frame "Klara and the Sun" less as an AI policy parable than a story about love, loneliness and death.
Google DeepMind recently cited Ishiguro's novel as an "ethical touchstone" for generative AI, a link that surprised the author and prompted him to warn the story is not a reliable guide for AI governance.
Jenna Ortega plays Klara, a solar-powered "artificial friend" to a sick 14-year-old, in Waititi's adaptation of Ishiguro's novel about companionship, bereavement and replaceability.
Waititi defended taking the film away from the book's exact tone, arguing adaptations should add original ideas rather than act as faithful covers of the source material.
The exchange underscored how a literary sci-fi drama has gained a second life in the AI debate even as its creators insist its core subject remains the human experience.