Tubi is now on my shit list.
For the past few years, the free streaming service has endeared itself to me with its extensive library of both mainstream and obscure movies. Sure, Tubi has ads, but to quote the legendary closing line to one of the all-time great comedies, Some Like it Hot (available on Tubi), “Nobody’s perfect.”
But then Tubi screwed up its goodwill with the recent announcement of its own AI chatbot within ChatGPT. As the company’s chief product and technology officer explained in the press release (in a corporate speak that sounds AI-generated itself): “As chatbots and AI agents are becoming a common way people navigate the internet, Tubi is expanding its discovery experience to meet viewers in the moment they’re expressing intent in their own words.”
In other words, Tubi is offering an AI chatbot that you can have a conversation with to figure out what movie you want to watch.
Not only is this one more example of the way tech corporations are encouraging humanity to offload its critical thinking to sycophantic large language models, but the launch of Tubi’s AI chatbot also runs contrary to the many, many movies in the service’s own library that preach the dangers of AI. Here are five such anti-AI movies in Tubi’s library that you (and Tubi execs) can watch before Tubi’s chatbot goes all Skynet on us.
5
RoboCop (1987)
The 1987 action thriller RoboCop is about a police officer who dies in the line of duty and is revived by being turned into a cyborg. The newly-named RoboCop is ruthlessly efficient at enforcing the law and entirely lacking in human compassion. Really, the central struggle of RoboCop is about a guy trying to rediscover his humanity which has been supplanted by robotics. Meanwhile, Tubi is kinda telling you to do the opposite.
Also, one of the very first scenes in RoboCop sees a different robotic police officer, ED-209, malfunction and kill someone. I’m not saying Tubi’s chatbot is going to do that, but I’m also not going to be trusting it with any high-grade weaponry.
4
Maximum Overdrive (1986)
The only film written and directed by Stephen King is about all the machines on Earth coming to life after Earth enters into the tail of a rogue comet. The movie features everything from monster trucks to electric knives to vending machines attacking humans. It’s about as anti-tech as you can get. (It’s also pretty anti-comet, but that doesn’t really apply here.)
3
Logan’s Run (1976)
In the year 2274, the future is represented as a highly-advanced utopian society run by an AI system named “Deep Sleep.” In this future, people can indulge all their hedonistic desires. There is, however, a catch. On their 30th birthday, people enter a device called the “Carrousel” which they’ve been told allows them to be reborn, but really just kills them so Deep Sleep can maintain the human population size.
That’s exactly the kind of coldly efficient thinking that AI is known for.
2
The Lawnmower Man (1992)
In movies, the way that technology often gets the better of mankind is by offering up some way to help. The intentions may even be good, that doesn’t mean things can’t get out of control. In The Lawnmower Man, a scientist offers up his cutting-edge VR technology to enhance the mind of an intellectually disabled gardener. But the gardener winds up getting so enhanced by the VR tech that he gains away with the telekinetic powers and begins killing people.
Now, Tubi is offering us an AI Chatbot to help us pick out a movie. I’m sure the intentions are good, but can they really promise that we won’t get sucked into the AI interface and become killer maniacs? The press release rather conspicuously sidesteps this concern.
1
Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (2002)
Yet another “helper” of humanity is Mechagodzilla. In the 2002 film Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla, which is a direct sequel to the original 1954 film, a new Godzilla monster is attacking Japan. To defeat it, Japanese forces construct Mechgodzilla, a robotic protector built using the skeleton of the original Godzilla.
Things go wrong when Mechagodzilla fights the new Godzilla, and the new Godzilla roars and it triggers the memories of the original Godzilla inside Mechagodzilla. Mechagodzilla then freaks out and begins terrorizing Tokyo.
Those who have seen this movie may be saying, “But Mechagodzilla is eventually fixed and he does defeat the new Godzilla.” Yes, that’s true, but, it causes a hell of a mess in the meantime. Personally, I’m unwilling to go through that just to pick out a movie on Tubi.
The search bar suits me just fine.