The Perfect AI Companion
Artificial intelligence (AI) appears to be influencing almost every aspect of human life these days and that includes everything from robopets (as a replacement for the real thing) to the online dating industry. There are even humanoid robots powered by AI but, as yet, no one has created an android that could pass for a real person and interact with them without anyone being able to tell the difference. But it is only a matter of time and Ich Bin Dein Mensch (English title: I’m Your Man, 2021), directed by German filmmaker Maria Schrader, takes this premise and turns it into a thought provoking cautionary tale that is alternately amusing, disturbing, sexy and subversive without ever falling into the trap of being just a futuristic romantic comedy.
Based on a short story by Emma Braslavsky and adapted for the screen by Jan Schomburg and Maria Schrader, I’m Your Man opens in the near future in Berlin with Alma (Maren Eggert) meeting her ideal AI match (Dan Stevens) at a faux nightclub where the dancers are all holograms. The only reason Alma, an anthropologist who specializes in ancient cuneiforms, is participating in this experiment is to curry favor with her boss, Dekan (Falilou Seck) – it was his idea – and receive funding for her current project, a study on the use of metaphor and poetry in early civilizations.
