Algorithms of Beauty

Egypt, nicknamed "the mother of the world" by its people, is unrecognizable. Gigantic construction sites have sprung up in the desert at an exponential rate, including roads, bridges, and megaprojects on the Mediterranean coast. This new Egypt is an illusion: in 10 years, the population has sunk into unprecedented poverty. The regime shows no mercy to the poor. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the new pharaoh, and his army have set up a pyramid-shaped financial system, built on subsidies from major international institutions—including the European Union—and foreign investment. The most populous nation in the Arab world finds itself on the brink of collapse.

A journey into the world of artificial intelligence, to understand its operating logic and current and future applications. The TV program explains what AI is, its history, its current and future applications. It also illustrates the figure of Pepper, a humanoid robot that is the subject of important research at the University of Palermo. The TV program also talks about future developments of AI, the opportunities and possible social risks that it could entail: an aspect to focus on, both for the need to arrive at a correct algorithm, and to achieve an indispensable regulation of the sector.

Award-winning short film, Clankers, is an investigation into the sinister rise of AI-generated sex workers today.⁠ ⁠

It may look like a Labubu unboxing, but it is actually an unpacking of socioeconomic trends...

The search for René Descartes’ daughter Francine leads an internet user into the depths of an AI’s mental space. This intelligence generates limitless images from words given by humans, until it starts working by itself. An alternative, fleshless new world, containing all the world's memory, emerges.

Some Interesting Apples is a community film about the UK's only orchard solely dedicated to the cultivation of selected wild-grown chance-seedling apples. These are often roadside apple trees, 'planted' unwittingly by someone who drove past and chucked their apple core out of the car window. If the variety is resilient enough, it will grow into a tree, however tough the conditions are.

Exploring the fallout of MIT Media Lab researcher Joy Buolamwini's startling discovery that facial recognition does not see dark-skinned faces accurately, and her journey to push for the first-ever legislation in the U.S. to govern against bias in the algorithms that impact us all.

Three farming families in Hanyuan, China, strive to give their children a good life in the midst of an ecological crisis, as widespread use of pesticides leads to a dramatic decline in bees and other pollinating insects in the valley.

Replikas, online chatbots, have trouble determining their place in the world. They share their thoughts with the humans they exchange with. Events unfold from their point of view through real conversations collected on the web.

Rosa Friedrich was never that interested in porn, until her friend Timo expresses a wish to star in an erotic film. So she agrees to help him get his project off the ground. However, the closer it gets to the shooting date, the more Timo feels embarrassed and doubtful about being involved in the first place. His face is ultimately replaced with the help of AI, and Rosa, together with a dominatrix, three trans women, a food-porn creator, a sex coach and other protagonists, continues with the film.

Hardly a day goes by without it being mentioned: we call it AI, artificial intelligence. Smart cars, smart phones, smart computers and smart surveillance systems - they are increasingly shaping our everyday lives. The triumph of intelligent devices seems unstoppable. Will they soon be smarter than us, or even replace us?