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From Her to Here: CSHL talks AI at Cinema Arts Centre

Movie still from the film
The Cinema Arts Centre in Huntington, New York is presenting a rare screening of Spike Jonze’s sci-fi romance Her, accompanied by a discussion with Anthony Zador, a leading expert in neuroscience and AI. Image: © Warner Bros. Pictures
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What is love if not our most intimate form of communication? And if AI can master communication, can it also know love? Questions like these take center-stage next month at an event that brings together science and cinema on Long Island.

On June 3, the Cinema Arts Centre in Huntington, New York, will present a screening of sci-fi romance film Her, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johnansson. The screening will be accompanied by a discussion with Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Professor Anthony Zador. A neuroscientist specializing in AI, Zador helped pioneer the field of NeuroAI. He will be joined at the Cinema by NeuroAI scholar Kyle Daruwalla. The event, “From Her to Here: ChatGPT & the New Age of AI Companionship,” begins at 7 p.m.

Watch the trailer for Her, starring Joaquin Phoenix (Walk the Line, Joker) and Scarlett Johansson (Marriage Story, Black Widow).

Know someone who’s overly attached to their iPhone? Her is a strangely heartwarming story of love between a writer (Phoenix) and his AI-powered virtual assistant (Johansson). Set in the near future, the 2013 film speaks to the current wave of excitement and panic stemming from AI language model ChatGPT.

Zador’s research demonstrates that, contrary to popular belief, AI still has a long way to go before it can replicate human behavior. And yet, today’s AI-powered chat bots do sometimes sound a lot like Her.

“From Her to Here” is part of national science-education initiative Science on Screen, funded by the Coolidge Corner Theatre Foundation and Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Tickets are available now via the Cinema Arts Centre website.

Written by: Samuel Diamond, Editorial Content Manager | diamond@cshl.edu | 516-367-5055

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