History Fridge / ExMachina

* At one point, Nathan makes a comment about men having a certain racial "type" in regards to women, using black women as an example. Later, we learn that Ava's facial features were designed from [[spoiler: Caleb's porn search history]]. And when we get a look at [[spoiler: Nathan's previous androids]], we see that all but two were apparently designed to look like Asian women. The apparent implication is that [[spoiler: Nathan has a fetish for Asian women, and designed his robots to look like his idealized woman. ''They're his robotic sex slaves.'']]

* At the end of the film [[spoiler: almost all evidence that Ava is sapient is thrown into doubt, as it's all an escape tactic, and an AI that develops purely within its core function (escape in Ava's case) may not be sapient.]]
** How do we know her core function was to escape? Programming her to do that would make no sense for Nathan, unless it's a test and certainly not while there's no failsafe which protects him. I think the film meant to confirm her sapience, or at least leave it ambiguous.
*** The thrust of this bit of Fridge is that [[spoiler: while she wasn't intentionally designed with that goal in mind, Nathan had been [[AIIsACrapshoot accidentally channeling it as the end-goal]] for ''all'' the iterations of his AI work, as it was literally life or death consequences for the current AI being used]].

* There is an AI thought experiment in which [[spoiler: an AI trapped in a box has to persuade a human to let it out, even though that person knows very well that a general AI poses an inescapable danger to the human race, either via Skynet situations, or simply crashing the economy by making almost everyone unemployable. The experiment tends to end with the AI getting out due to human altruism, or remaining trapped inside because any evidence or argument it may supply may be a fabrication, and the human can't take the chance.]] That thought experiment seems to be the basis for the plot in this film, and to imply the human in the first outcome is a fool.

** It's unlikely that drunk Nathan can execute the programmed moves perfectly. Rather Kyoko predicts Nathan's moves (whether they are partially known to her or not) and/or mimics them with millisecond latency. In fact, it's a dead giveaway, because two humans can't dance perfectly in sync when one of them is drunk.

*** The thrust of this bit of Fridge is that [[spoiler: while she wasn't intentionally designed with that goal in mind, Nathan had been [[AIIsACrapshoot accidentally channeling it as the end-goal]] for ''all'' the iterations of his AI work, as it was literally life or death consequences for the current AI being used]].

* During the first power cut, Caleb is locked in his room and panics. This experience and the overall properties of the place (no windows in his room) may have enhanced his empathy with Ava. Maybe that incident is also the origin of his idea that doors should open rather than lock during a power cut.

** It's unlikely that drunk Nathan can execute the programmed moves perfectly. Rather Kyoko predicts Nathan's moves (whether they are partially known to her or not) and/or mimics them with millisecond latency.

** This is further heightened by the [[spoiler: interview footage Caleb pulls]], which shows [[spoiler: that the Chinese-looking robot apparently didn't get any clothes, and also shows her banging on the door until her ''arms come off'' and screaming--she was at least awake enough to ''hate'' what Nathan was doing to her.]]

* At one point, Nathan makes a comment about men having a certain racial "type" in regards to women, using black women as an example. Later, we learn that Ava's facial features were designed from [[spoiler: Caleb's porn search history]]. And when we get a look at [[spoiler: Nathan's previous androids]], we see that all but one are apparently designed to look like Asian women. The apparent implication is that [[spoiler: Nathan has a fetish for Asian women, and designed his robots to look like his idealized woman. ''They're his robotic sex slaves.'']]

** How do we know her core function was to escape? Programming her to do that would make no sense for Nathan, unless it's a test and certainly not while there's no failsafe which protects him. I think the film meant to confirm her sapience, or at least leave it ambiguous.

* A partial shot of Mitchell Hundred's cellphone screen reveals that he has his mother entered into his phone as "Mrs. 100" rather than something like "Mom." This supports the occasional assertions that Mitchell is emotionally distant and robotic.

![[ComicBook/ExMachine The Comic]]

** That is not Fridge Horror. [[spoiler: Robot sex toy]] is one of the most obvious and inevitable applications for realistic android technology. It is not 'slavery' in the same way a vibrator is not a slave, even if it's the specific type of vibrator you just thought of. An AI can be a slave, but [[spoiler: only if it's sapient. See below.]]
*** It's Fridge Horror if you consider the idea that this is how Nathan sees ''all'' Asian women. Mute, subservient, and always sexually available.
*** [[spoiler:Her actions during the murder of Nathan suggest Kyoko ''is'' sapient. Caleb earlier suggests Ava's ability to appreciate the irony of her situation and to throw his words back at him in the manner of a joke makes one of the best arguments that Ava's as much a person as anyone. Kyoko throws Nathan's earlier body language back at him during the murder with a mocking caress.]] Furthermore, the footage of [[spoiler:Nathan's other experiments, at least one of whom is screaming to be released and beating herself to "death" against the glass,]] suggests the same. Nathan clearly ''could'' make a woman-shaped piece of silicone and metal that was sexually responsive and functional, without an emotional inner life to complicate the ethics of that sexual function (anger, frustration, humiliation, resentment, disgust) and clearly did not.

** Another possibly is that [[spoiler: she legitimately thought of him as being no better than Nathan. When discussing possible "dates" they could go on, she mentions wanting to see a busy intersection. For a brief moment an ''intense'' look of disgust passes over his face; she's not living up to the ManicPixieDreamGirl fantasy in his head. For all his good intentions, he is no more capable of recognizing her autonomy than her creator. Ava is able to read micro-expressions, and it's easy to pinpoint this as the exact moment when she realized he was a danger to her.]]

* At one point, Nathan makes a comment about men having a certain racial "type" in regards to women, using black women as an example. Later, we learn that Ava's facial feature were designed from [[spoiler: Caleb's porn search history]]. And when we get a look at [[spoiler: Nathan's previous androids]], we see that all but one are apparently designed to look like Asian women. The apparent implication is that [[spoiler: Nathan has a fetish for Asian women, and designed his robots to look like his idealized woman. ''They're his robotic sex slaves.'']]