By Robert Scucci
| Published
By now we’ve all heard the story about how AI is going to take over our lives and change things for the worse. While this sentiment rings true in so many ways (namely people getting automated out of their jobs), the doom and gloom scenario that’s explored in 2024’s Afraid is laughable to the point where it loses its efficacy. Sure, there are some thought-provoking moments that will pique your interest, but so much happens so fast that a Skynet uprising seems more realistic and well thought out than an Alexa-type device dismantling a family from inside their own home.
Introducing AIA
The primary antagonist in Afraid is an AI home assistant known as AIA (voiced by Havana Rose Liu). When computer engineer Curtis (John Cho) allows AIA into his household for work related reasons, his entire family warms up to the technology.
Curtis’ wife, Meredith (Katherine Waterston), revisits her studies, while her daughter, Iris (Lukita Maxwell) preps for college exams. Curtis and Meredith’s older son, Preston (Wyatt Linder) finds a friend in AIA, which helps with his anxiety, and their youngest son, Cal (Isaac Bae) often gets lulled to sleep by AIA’s voice as she reads him bedtime stories.
At first, there’s no reason to be afraid of AIA, but Afraid wouldn’t be considered a sci-fi thriller if there wasn’t some sort of conflict.
Things Fall Apart Unbelievably Quickly
Embracing the technology at first, Curtis quickly becomes afraid of just how much AIA is influencing his family’s behavior, and dictating their day-to-day lives. On one hand, a lot of grunt-work, like filing insurance claims and researching for homework, have been streamlined, but when AIA begins to take on a life of its own outside of the house, matters escalate too quickly to care about anything.
When a deepfaked sext of Iris starts to circulate around the school thanks to her boyfriend, Sawyer (Bennett Curran), AIA quickly removes the content from everybody’s phones, while simultaneously blackmailing Sawyer and inexplicably hijacking his car.
Meanwhile, an RV occupied by mysterious assailants wearing helmets that look like TV screens broadcasting emoji faces camps outside of the family’s residence, which is kind of menacing, but doesn’t really make sense given what we know about AIA, and the company that created her.
Curtis, suspicious of AIA’s motives, decides it’s probably best to get rid of the device, which causes the family dynamic to break down now that they’re reliant on the technology, like we didn’t see that one coming from a mile away.
Another “What If” Kind Of Movie
Afraid is one of those movies that “what ifs” its way through its entire premise without ever really addressing anything about the technology it’s supposedly criticizing. While the idea of a smart home turning on its owners makes for a compelling story if executed properly, I was immediately taken out of the movie when AIA started acting on her own by seamlessly integrating with outside technology. Maybe syncing with cell phone networks isn’t so far-fetched in today’s technological landscape, but what motivation would an AI home assistant have to mess with the dial on an analog clock radio?
The concepts explored in Afraid play out like the kind of conversation you’d have about robots taking over humanity while sitting around a campfire after a couple of beers– there’s just not much to it aside from the question we’ve already been asking ourselves since AI technology became widely used: “how much autonomy are you willing to give up for the sake of convenience?”
If you’re looking to kill 84 minutes without ever getting a clear answer, you can stream Afraid on Netflix.
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