The Artifice Girl – Review

Special Agent Deena Helmes (Nichols) sits in an interview room and uses her Siri-powered earpiece device to send messages to Cheryl at front reception. The AI helps her send the mail. She then asks Siri what the difference between right and wrong is. The AI asks if she would like a web search. No, Deena decides, seeing the limitation of this program. She sets a reminder instead.

The door opens, and in walks Gareth (Ritch) who Deena introduces herself to, while her partner Special Agent Amos McCullough (Girard) follows the man in so they can get some questions answered. Gareth is asked some background stuff about his life. He works on movies with special effects, and they want to know about his work. He says he worked on 3D renderings, and for some reason the agents want details on this process.

They push into more, asking about digitizing people, since his special effects work included bringing dead actors to life for a new Star Wars installment. The agents push further. Where is this all going? A contentious interview is just the beginning, as a plot does begin to form. The agents dig into Gareth and his technological knowledge, abilities and usage, as well as life habits.

Hmmmm… pieces start to form. Gareth is pressed about how he may have been using his 3D rendering skills on people online. Deena reveals their group focuses on finding any child traffickers and pedophiles. What does this have to do with Gareth’s technological ability?! Why are the agents doing this to Gareth? What makes him so special? Deena drops the hammer, but then the movie takes a slight twist.

Gareth mayyyy have written a program that could be used to find sexual predators, and mayyyy have been sending all evidence to the police so they could be locked up. This is only the beginning of the story and the interesting take on technology.

The Artifice Girl is a well-done small budget Sci-Fi film which uses some real-life technologies with some believable enhancements that are becoming more and more real as AI tools evolve. As these AI apps infest our daily lives non-stop, and generative content becomes more and more realistic, the online world is likely going to turn into an incomprehensible mush. BUT, for those with creative minds and technological understanding, potentially these tools could be used for good, or to find really bad people doing really bad things.

Check out The Artifice Girl if you want a solid and realistic technological take on the up-and-coming AI world that will be inescapable. There is a lot of dialogue in this one, it’s mostly talking, so don’t expect crazy action and you’ll be okay.