Like it or loathe it, the buzzword of 2024 is definitely AI.
Everything seems to have an AI-related element these days – you can't even re-release a light gun classic like Time Crisis without making reference to it, apparently – and there's a fair amount of excitement and trepidation surrounding the notion of Artificial Intelligence, especially from those old enough to remember movies like The Terminator and Wargames.
TV presenter and retro-head Jason Bradbury is one of those people, and he's creating a movie which aims to give the topic of AI a comedic spin.
Crtl AI Delete is live on Kickstarter now, and Bradbury is hoping to raise £50,000 to help complete the venture, which aims to combine classic '80s themes with a "fresh, contemporary narrative about a rogue Super Intelligence that has turned the world upside down."
Bradbury was kind enough to chat with us about the movie.
Time Extension: For those reading this who somehow don't know who you are, could you fill us in on your career and what you're up to these days?
Jason Bradbury: Most people in the UK know me as one of the faces of The Gadget Show, a pretty seminal tech review show that started in the mid-2000s when not much else about tech was on mainstream telly!
I started out studying film and TV at University, where I was part of a stand-up comedy group with David Walliams and Simon Pegg (and Dominic Diamond from Gamesmaster fame!). Before that, I’d grown up in the '70s, '80s and '90s surrounded by technology. My dad was in the plastics design business, so as kids, me and my brothers got to try prototypes of the early first-generation personal computers and electronic toys. We had the first Sinclair Digital Watch, early console and computer shells to mess around with!
So, suffice it to say, my interest in gadgets and games was established back them and carried forward to my work on The Gadget Show and everything since.
What inspired you to create Crtl AI Delete, and what message (if any) is there behind the film?
There is no one message as such, other than a shared understanding that this is an awesomely powerful technology that will bring a unique set of problems. Perhaps we should be mindful of where it all leads. It doesn’t need to be Terminator for Super Intelligence to have a profoundly negative impact on normal people’s lives. It could simply be about who gets to access AI, or which ideas and groups it promotes, whose agenda it’s trained on or pushes.
Not that Ctrl AI Delete focusses on such lofty issues. The movie is really about people, the kinds of people most of us recognise: chancers, contenders who never really made it, and friends from school who perhaps didn’t reach the potential they had. The detritus and mundanity of normal everyday life that keeps us down and the digital noise that distracts us all.
Then an AI meltdown brings a kind of digital apocalypse to the Western World, and these same people, who, when everyone else was focused on being financially successful, were lame ducks, rise to the challenge and kick-ass! The underdogs, geeks and gamers are the ones who save humanity from a rogue AI using the passion they have for '80s and '90s computers and consoles.
On a scale of 1 to 10, how worried are you about AI destroying humanity?
It’s not humanity that AI might destroy, it will be the same poor b*stards that are always ignored by advances in tech, sweeping new initiatives, corporate and government handshakes.
My concern is that there will the information/Machine Learning Rich and Poor, with the latter missing out on the truly amazing potential this next stage of our technological evolution promises.
Yes, rogue entities could use AI in the future to engineer biological weapons or advance their nuclear weapons ambitions, but for me, the scarier proposition is governments using advanced intelligence to persuade, control, indoctrinate, target and silence members of society with different ideas to whatever ideology they are pushing.
Wow, this interview just became deep!
You've assembled a really talented team on this project. What's it been like working with them?
So far, it’s been amazing! We are very early on in the process, but the teaser footage you’ll see in the trailer on Kickstarter brought together a hugely talented and passionate bunch, making signs and props (like the Marquee for our fictional Arcade Machine ‘Star Dash’), acting of course – mainly from our wonderful leading man, Josh – lighting and shooting the super cool little Arcade we used.
Our director, Elizabeth Blake Thomas, who actually works in Hollywood, is an old mate of mine, so that’s an important relationship I know works, but equally, our Director of Photography Sam, who I just met one day in Newquay, is phenomenally talented! He "handheld" all the film footage sections of the promo, shooting on an Anamorphic lens, which is why those bits look so '80s!
What movies have inspired you?
Blade Runner, Aliens, Wargames, The Last Starfighter, Die Hard, Escape from New York, Hackers! And then British comedies like Brassed Off, Billy Elliot and The Inbetweeners.
You've never made any secret about the fact that you love retro games. Why are they so appealing, do you think, to all age groups?
The nostalgia of the first generation of gaming consoles and arcade machines is something that can’t easily be re-engineered today. You can get close with a VR Arcade sim or the re-release of a mini version of a classic console, but nothing smells, feels or has the convoluted set-up process of an actual 1980s or '90s console or computer plugged into a CRT.
These things are a direct line to our shared past; they are scarce, vulnerable to the passage of time and – in certain regards – irreplaceable, and in an age of conspicuous consumption, that’s a rare set of qualities.
What's your favourite game console of all time, and what's your favourite game?
Fave console is the Atari 2600, although that is closely followed by my Vectrex. I’ll go with the Atari, as I had one just about at launch, and it changed my life! The box art, the faux wood on the front, snapping in those carts and, of course, the simple but intoxicating gameplay is something I’ll never stop loving.
Fave game ever? Wow! I’m a big Halo fan! You can get that for the 2600, you know! Half Life! Double Dragon! Flashback gets an honorary mention! But I think I’ll go with GoldenEye 007 for the N64. The multiplayer battles I had on the game were epic, and I still play it in four-player to this day.
What's the schedule like for Crtl AI Delete? When do you expect to have it all wrapped up and ready for release?
I don’t know if I can see that far into the future. How about a year from now? Yes, that sounds far enough away to get through the Kickstarter, pre-production, the actual filming and then all the post-production and fulfilment of all those lovely rewards!
How can people support this project?
Just head over to the Kickstarter page, watch our cool promo (featuring the aforementioned anamorphically-shot cinematics), and choose a reward package that suits your fancy.
We’ve got everything from the simple Digital Download, cool merch and signed props from the movie right up to a chance to be in the movie in person!
One Reward I would recommend to the Time Extension community is ‘High Score Hero’ which will see your name in the back of shots on the High Score Honour Roll of our fictional arcade machine, Star Dash!
Assuming Ctrl AI Delete is a success, do you have plans for future movie projects?
Yes! Mark Felgate and I, the stand-up comic buddy of mine who co-wrote Ctrl AI Delete, have a few narratives that we’re throwing around. When you create a bunch of characters and live with them as we have, for well over a year, it’s hard to say goodbye, so, assuming we are granted the chance by your generous support to make film 1, we’ll be onto film 2 immediately!
We'd like to thank Jason for his time. Ctrl AI Delete is on Kickstarter now.