World's First AI Robot Movie Star Gets Cast In $70 Million Sci-Fi Film

From 2001: A Space Odyssey to Ex-Machina, there have been many movies about artificial intelligence over the years. It was perhaps inevitable that we'd eventually get an AI movie star, and it seems that day is here. It's been reported that a new sci-fi movie is in development, and it's set to star an AI robot named Erica.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the movie is simply titled "b." The film has a reported budget of $70 million, but does not yet have a director attached. The story will "follow a scientist who discovers dangers associated with a program he created to perfect human DNA and helps the artificially intelligent woman he designed escape."

Erica was originally built as part of a joint robotics project between Osaka and Kyoto universities, led by scientist by Hiroshi Ishiguro. She now has own IMDB page, and you can watch a 2018 video of her below, in which she introduces herself and interacts with the public:

Erica has been taught how to "act" using the principles of method acting. Co-writer and producer Sam Khoze told THR how Erica has been adapted to work on the movie. "In other methods of acting, actors involve their own life experiences in the role," he said. "But Erica has no life experiences. We had to simulate her motions and emotions through one-on-one sessions, such as controlling the speed of her movements, talking through her feelings and coaching character development and body language."

This is the just the latest in technological development that points to some of the ways filmmaking is potentially heading. Last year, Martin Scorsese's The Irishman featured groundbreaking de-aging technology, while it was also reported that James Dean was being digitally resurrected for a new movie role. In addition, the Star Wars movie Rogue One featured digitally recreated versions of Carrie Fisher and Peter Cushing.