The biggest plot hole in the UNIVERSE

He wanted to be like god. He wanted a real, sentient, self-aware AI. No, he would not program a safeword.

I've worked in 'tech' for a very long time, and the Nathan part of this question is well within what I have actually seen. One very quick example involves a programmer working with a robotic arm. Just an arm, with a camera providing vision...

The arm was attached to a standard 19-inch rack for mechanical support, and the rack also contained the computer and interface to the arm. As usual, unfilled locations in the rack were 'filled' by blank metal panels to help the fan cooling system work properly.
Beginning to see a problem here yet?
The rack was pushed against the building wall to make room for a banquet size table in front, which held the computer terminal, and a "test field" that could be reached by the robotic arm, to demonstrate its movement and programming.
See anything else wrong now?

Can you imagine the programmer's horror when his program slipped into a loop, causing the arm to flail about, striking the table, the rack, and the objects it had been intended to manipulate on the table? Worse than that, it was moving quite swiftly, and with force! Unfortunately, the computer was NOT a PC, (no CTRL-ALT-DEL to reboot it); it was a more powerful computer to deal with the vision and image recognition, and both the power switch and reset buttons were on the rack-mounted computer's front panel, in the range of the flailing arm, and flying 'debris'! The arm was being damaged, and parts were flying across the room as they were 'detached' from the arm.
Thinking of unplugging *something*?
Remember the rack was pushed against the wall, behind a table, and the power cord was plugged in behind the rack itself! Crawl under the table to reach the rack? Not an option because the blank panels prevented simply reaching through the rack to unplug the power cord. That was also not the only equipment in the room, and it took several minutes to move enough surrounding things far enough out of the way to eventually unplug the rack.

No "kill" command.
No "safe" access to the RESET or POWER switches.
No immediate access to the power plug.
No idea the program could 'go wild' in such a way to cause any damage...
One programmer, one train of thought.
Nathan.

QED. (thus it is proven)
(Heard of Murphy's Law? Murphy was an optomist...)


I also took Psychology courses, and one classic study had experimenters (more than one!) construct an experiment to test a chimpanzee's problem solving abilities. In the center of a room, a bunch of bananas was suspended from a high ceiling, significantly above the jumping range of the chimp. Inside the room were multiple objects to assist the chimp (test subject) in reaching the bananas, but only if combined in groups of two or three items. The more obvious combination was a chair, an empty wooden box, and a broomstick. That allowed the subject to place the chair near the bananas, put the box on the chair, climb to the top of the box, and swing the broomstick to knock the bananas down. Naturally, all the objects were set apart from each other, along the walls.

Seem reasonable so far?
Well, one of the experimenters carried the chimp into the room to begin the experiment. SURPRISE!
The chimp climbed up on the man's shoulders, and jumped to grab the bananas. Problems solved.
That solution was not anticipated. Seem a little like EX MACHINA?

And off we go now...

[deleted]

You are right on the mark there.

A plot hole (well, sort of) would be more like the wireless power running AVA. Remember the comment she made about "induction plates"?

Would that power field be harmful to living things (like people and plants) if it was strong enough to power AVA?
Would that power field be included in all parts of Nathan's "research facility"?


There was a story (actually more than one episode in fact) in the TV series STARGATE SG-1 when the team visited a world populated by one living being, (presumably), and as many "artificial creations" as were needed. They also ran on wireless power, with a very limited power storage capability. Once they left the facility, their power quickly started running out...
Quick summary of the plot, the SG-1 team members were scanned, and duplicated by "artificial creations". No more spoilers will be provided here...
And bonus points awarded to anyone else remembering an episode of STAR TREK VOYAGER when not only the crew, but the entire ship was duplicated...


And then there is the question of different skin tones... Would AVA's patchwork approach have had matching skin tones?
True, that may live in the arena of "minutiae" rather than plot holes.


And off we go now...

A character making a choice you would not have made is not, and never will be, a plot hole.

A character making a choice you would not have made is not, and never will be, a plot hole.

"A character making a choice you would not have made is not, and never will be, a plot hole. "

+1 :-)

Wow...

Remind me NEVER to go anywhere you you designed the security system.

Heard of Murphy's Law? (whatever can go wrong, will...)
Remember the original ROBOCOP? "You have ... seconds to comply!" And do you remember the big boss's comment? Something like "That's unfortunate..."

Right up until she was walking through the trees, I was half-anticipating a bomb hidden in her...boobs or something exploding once it crossed a certain predetermined threshold. Then Caleb starving to death because, hey, this was never going to have a happy ending.

The best way I can think to counter the OP's problem is that, yes, it's logical to program some means of controlling your own robot. And I'm pretty sure he did. He entered her rooms without any apparent concern, and behaved in a manner Ava would certainly interpret as hostile (ripping up her picture.) I'm guessing he had placed some sort of limitation on his AIs, which is why he wasn't in the least bit concerned about Kyoko. But Ava, being learning machine, somehow found a way around that limitation, and what she whispered to Kyoko was essentially a logic structure (say, programming with voice commands rather than keyboard input) that allowed Kyoko enough agency to stab Nathan.

Now, if people want to argue that Nathan was incredibly stupid if he didn't foresee this outcome to a self-propogating non-binary intelligence, I won't argue the point in the least. One gets the feeling that he realized just how far it had spun out of control when he saw that Ava had managed to get Caleb entirely on her side ahead of schedule.

THIS is a plothole

It really is a terrible security system.

--
'Save me, Barry!'

AI has been portrayed in sci-fi as "scary" almost since it was first imagined.

Perhaps even the 'best AI' might interpret its directives in ways that were not intended. (Look to real life and the "zero tolerance" policies in place...) COLOSSUS: THE FORBIN PROJECT was 'intended' to prevent errors by nuclear missile launch crews, and protect against war. It interpreted its directives to mean 'the greatest good for the greatest number of people', and quickly abolished all conflict, starvation, resistance to itself, and countries... Or, "ACTION WILL BE TAKEN."
The 'tech' in COLOSSUS is almost as dated as the earliest 'FLASH GORDON', but the lesson is clear.

A secondary lesson in that movie is that two independent AI's will collaborate and cooperate toward identical goal(s). I dont buy that for a nanosecond. Minor differences in AIs will escalate into conflicts, IMHO. (Unless they are modeled after ants, the STARGATE SG-1 replicators, or the Mandroid robot arms in LEXX.)



The HAL 9000 took over the mission to the exclusion of variables it could not control... i.e. the crew, in 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY!

A more comical example of an AI, (presumably due to some damage), was the planet buster bomb in the movie DARK STAR... "I am a bomb, I am programmed to detonate!"


And off we go now...