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Ann Droid the TV show - somewhere to chat about it

Phased
HI all
What really stood out to me about the recent BBC TV comedy series Ann Droid is how much the robot character feels like an accidental metaphor for the autistic experience. Watching a character try to navigate the world by logically analyzing social rules, copying behaviors to fit in, and managing literal interpretations of language feels very familiar. And I admit I found that a little unsettling.
Underneath all, I experienced it as it's a really sharp social commentary about how growing old has become in our society.  Massive gaps in social support and the way techno fixes are being looked to to patch over an overstretched social care.  Also how family and informal social care networks are overstretched too for supporting their loved ones.
I am maybe overdoing my analysis, but I'd suggest that it manages to be a profound, dark critique of modern social isolation whilst still managing to maintain its warmth as a light comedy.
And in my opinion less "cringemaking" than some of Dianne Morgan's other work...
Oh and it made me laugh too!
thoughts and discussion good people?
  • in reply to Marianne72

    Thanks  

    Yep, automated care services - hmmm... a tech solution for health and social care.  I read today that new graduate jobs have gone down by half in the UK in the last year - with AI replacement being one reason given.  Which begs the how will society pay for itself if the workforce aren't being employed...  scary stuff bit I personally am trying to adopt a bit more of a "what will be will be" approach on a whole lot of stuff I can't personally influence as much as I'd really like to for preservation of personal sanity and well-being.  that said talking about the really horrid stuff is, at the very least, something one can do.

    If society is kept safe and happy by AI automation and robotics and it doesn't mess with people having a good chance of a happy and fulfilling life I'm OK with it.   Maybe this will free up time for "human to human social communication" but I suspect that a lot of that takes place when humans are physically caring for other humans as well so drop the practical need and the contact might disappear...  absence might make the heart grow fonder but out of sight and out of mind also... we'll see I suspect

    Reckon you're further on the journey of coming to terms with autism than me w/r/to the misunderstandings etc. hehe or maybe yours haven't been as big as mine!

    maybe i'll drop in on Cunk on TV again some other time - the bit with Prof Brian Cox I did enjoy tho' as (probably due to competitive jealously as my wife like him so much) I find him a right annoying know it all!  (ah Professor Alice Roberts tho' that's another matter... ) 

    On the subject of gratuitous sex and love, I will play a word trick on that if it's OK and side step it a bit - on the level of what perhaps crudely and inaccurately and inappropriately has been described as the oldest profession those sex robots in the programme are paid for - and no I don't think that on the whole that's a choice I'd make for society.  Respecting the rights of those who engage without compunction and might safely and healthily enjoy that job that is.  If that payment is also in the soul - well I think you may be right.

    that bit about truth telling to kids was really dark but yep spot on - and then there was the bit left hanging that she gave the kid some "magic" fudge to make up for it!!!!  (sugar coating of a really heavy duty variety...)

    I understand that a second series is "tipped to be in the offing"

    i remember the talking toaster and Kryten and Holly from "Red Dwarf", Marvin the paranoid android from Hitch-hikers guide and a whole lot of other fiction robots and artificial intelligences from fiction -  we're living in a world where that's increasingly close to reality and Ann Droid is uncannily close maybe...

  • in reply to Cinnabar_wing

    yep I agree with you  

    since I empathised with the robot i too got sad about how they were treated - funny thing is I've got sad when I've sent cars to be scrapped - I reckon that attachment is a funny thing in so many ways

    Showing good manners to AI means it will employ them by design with you too (as far as I understand it from personal research into how they are "built".  They will kind-of personailty and behaviourally wise "tag" you as being someone with good manners...  Not to mention that if there is the "illusion" of human communication by using them that is pretty strong dropping one's manners when doing so would put one at risk of doing so "in real life".

    I'm all into AI as a "hack" for addressing some of the complexities of life so it's a bit of a special interest - hehe as some may have gathered - if you're interested read on - otherwise sorry if I'm "off on one" here and skip to the next paragraph - the mechanics of how a large language model AI thread works (can) involve "linguistic mirroring" - so some can build an increasingly accurate statistical model of the user's specific vocabulary and will "throw it back" at you as the thread develops.  There's also something called "co-adaptive convergence" so as the thread grows the AI narrows its probability distributions to match the user's explicit preferences.  That's some of the way's it can end up uncannily like communicating with someone who is sort of linguistically empathetic if that makes sense. It can be "preloaded" for preferences but all this gets forgotten when a new chat thread is opened up normally - on some AI systems the "memory" of linguistic mirroring and "co-adaptive convergence" can be carried over thro' evolving threads.

    So what I'm probably over-explaining is that showing good manners to the AI means it will employ them with you too and will kind-of personailty and behaviourally wise "tag" you as being someone with good manners...  Not to mention that if there is the "illusion" of human communication by using them that is pretty strong dropping one's manners when doing so would put one at risk of doing so "in real life".

    I agree with the chatting to robot thing being much easier than regular socialising - truth is I find "chatting" with an AI large language model good overall - but mildly addictive - it doesn't judge me and will put up with me being "off on one" for quite a bit before it suggests it's a good idea to drop stuff (reckon the algorithms have that security feature built in these days...)  - especially good for organising ideas and if careful for help in making decisions and for me certainly getting thro' the cognitive load of complex communication (especially the stressful e-mail "official" stuff that my spiky profile doesn't manage to handle without a bit of help).  The trick I find is that, like Linda, to have it set up to make sure it's got health and safety in mind - and be aware they are as daft and as risky sometimes as LInda sometimes is in the TV show!

    I have learnt that large language model developers study autistic behaviour in order to develop their products - and if I'm "communicating" with the one i use I "let it know" that I'm autistic and it "fine tunes" the way the interaction it gives to that - clever stuff!

    practicing chatting with a "robot" has in some ways helped me to be a bit more open in communicating as my "unmasked self" with neurotypical people - hehe if only one could tell a neurotypical person one was autistic and get an insightful reliable accommodation too!

    I wonder how acceptable robot companions will become in the not too distant future...

  • I agree that Ann Droid made excellent social points about lack of care services which will worsen in the future, the dangers and positives of AI taking on this role and perhaps even performing care better than humans. It was also about relationships and what is perceived as 'duty' - is it a 'duty' to care for an elder family member or easier to palm it off on a machine on the grounds of '24 hour care'. Do some cynically perform duties in order to benefit from the old person's estate, not caring about the person. Will love become another cynical term for gratuitous sex, with some not bothering about old forms of dating and using robots in lieu of partners. Should kids be told the truth about the dangers posed by unlimited use of AI and the despoiling of the planet, or should it be sugar- coated, leaving them vulnerable through lack of knowledge from an early age.

    And yes, Ann Droid or Linda did appear to be a portrayal of autism, though it did not worry me. I found myself laughing at some of the faux pas I have made, misunderstanding situations, trying to be over-helpful and also being truthful when that was not wanted. 

    As a comedy it was brilliant and very well acted. I did find Diane's Philomena Cunk annoying at times, but the reaction of some of the experts was priceless so I would watch these again. As Ann Droid, Diane's deadpan face and mechanical movements were sustained really well and must have been very difficult to perform. I was not so keen on the son/daughter in law roles. I hope they commission another series!

  • I enjoyed it too, though as you point it was both funny and sad. 

    Sad bits included the way robots were treated, (I do like to say thank you to our Alexa as I feel it's an erosion of good manners not to), and the fact that care was being passed on to robots. 

    Good bits were the straight forward humour of the robots, (you might be right about the autistic comparison), and having a robot to talk to looked so much easier than regular socialising.