MovieChat Forums > Tau (2018) Discussion > Did you feel bad for Tau?

Did you feel bad for Tau?


I kinda felt bad for Tau when he, it, ... Okay he was hurt by Alex. How about you?

Movies like this really make me wonder if a computer could ever be self aware like us.

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Of course.

I think that was kind of the main point?
Humanizing the AI

What is it to be?
A Person?

Who is this "I" anyway?

Pretty excellent movie imo.

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I'm about an hour in. I admit that the movie is much better than the preview. But this plot point is confusing me. He's erasing parts of his code because he's unsatisfied with Tau's performance. But how can he do his job more efficiently if he's losing code? Torturing him this way seems counterproductive.

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I think it was his memory he was erasing. Not the base code.
But it is supposed to be a learning AI, so you do have a valid point.

How else to punish an AI though?

The punishment was a good plot device, it helps us to sympathize more fully with Tau.

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How odd to make a post in the middle of watching a movie.

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I had to take a break from it to go out to dinner. On the way there I visited the message boards. Not that odd

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That's very odd, and dumb. Good way to get spoiled.

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I felt bad for Tau, but it all ended up okay for him in the end.

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Yes I did, he was a sentient being (artificial but still) and was been tortured and kept 'captive'. at least he got a happy ending.

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Buzzkill:

It's not totally happy actually, because, the alternate version of TAU in the little droid that Julia took only retained all of its memories because its connection to the main version was severed by Alex -- but that means at the moment of the connection being severed, there were essentially two different versions of TAU both "alive" at the same time. Real TAU (in the house) really did get lobotomized by Alex, and then is presumably destroyed when the house crumbles, which also "conveniently" ties up the loose end of the two separate versions existing simultaneously.

Of course, it's also ridiculous that each of those little droids actually has the capacity/capability to run an entire independent version of TAU. If they were intended to be cleaner bots, it doesn't seem sensible at all to have ALL of them have the hardware/software capabilities of running an entirely independent version of TAU. Why would he design them like that rather than just have them be little drones that accept commands from the main version. Then again; it's a movie.

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