‘Mercy’ a Valuable Consideration of AI’s Ultimate Authority

It’s almost daily now that news of AI’s potential impact on our work, our relationships or our understanding of truth crosses our feeds. What the action-driven Mercy does is examine AI’s impact on justice.

Key points:

Chris Raven (Chris Pratt) is a detective who lives in the near future where an advanced AI Judge (Rebecca Ferguson) he introduced to policing is in charge of determining guilt as he stands trial for alleged murder. He’s allowed 90mins to prove his innocence – using the full range of knowledge the Judge has acquired or that it’s asked to search out – and if he fails, the sentence is execution.

Given the majority of the movie has its two main characters isolated to a chair and screen, Mercy is rapid-fire in its action sequences.

We meet Chris Raven when he’s woken up in “court” disorientated and confused about what’s happening – not helped by the emotionless Judge assigned to move proceedings along. The Judge gives us a quick explanation of the rules of the forum and the time crunch makes the story progress, serving a streaming-generation who the writer knows just want to see the ending and have limited attention to get there.

Chris Raven becomes the director of officers retracing the crime scene, no-nonsense calls to potential suspects and dialogue with the Judge about rules that are getting in the way of human agency.

It’s easy to think you’ll know where Mercy will go with its angle on artificial intelligence and how restrictive its system of justice could be, but its intent goes beyond asking, “is AI a suitable authority?” and more to the question of where ultimate supremacy should lie.

With anything manmade – or man-engineered – there will always be flaws when its weaknesses are paired with our own, and we’ve outsourced our power. We may have designed it, but who does it answer to? At what point do we lose our governance? And can it show mercy?

Coding can’t always comprehend the human nuances required for the role of Judge, and equally, humans aren’t always pragmatic enough to detect manipulation.

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Mercy is a movie for a time where AI technologies are only becoming more ingrained in life and leadership and we need to quickly decide what the boundaries of that involvement will be.

On a personal level, the movie’s an invitation to contemplate the themes of mercy and justice in our own lives too.

The Christian worldview believes “God himself is Judge (Psalm 50: 6 [ESV])”, and that when we come to the end of life we will all “appear before the judgement seat of Christ [receiving] what is due for us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad (2 Corinthians 5:10 [ESV])”.

It sounds intense – scary even when you look back on your life – but unlike an AI Judge or any earthly ruler, God’s judgment unreservedly comes with grace, and it comes with mercy. Lamentations says, “the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning (3:22-23 [ESV])”.

The way to access that mercy is through Jesus. The one God sent “to save the world not condemn it (John 3:16 [NIV]).”

God’s mercy is a free gift, for all, without restraint.

As far as judgement goes, that’s a method that sounds way more appealing.

Mercy is in cinemas now, rated M.

See IMDb’s Parents Guide.

Feature image: Amazon MGM Studios YouTube