Filmmaker Keiichi Matsuda has released a new short film depicting a future where corporations have become dominated by AI and automation.
“With automation disrupting centuries-old industries, the professional must reshape and expand their service to add value,” said Matsuda. “Failure is a mindset. It is those who empower themselves with technology who will thrive.
Called Merger, the 360-degree film follows a young accountant who finds herself struggling to compete against AI-run corporations. Unable to keep up even after implementing productivity strategies such as utilizing an augmented reality work station and acquiring necessary nutrients from food supplements, the film ultimately ends with the accountant merging with the system to best serve clients.
“We need to restructure our society in a more radical way, where automation becomes an asset instead of a threat,” said Matsuda.
“The idea of work will need to change completely within our lifetimes,” Matsuda told Dezeen. “The breakthroughs in AI and automation over the last few years are paving the way for mass job losses in the next 10 to 15 years. We have seen this before with ‘blue-collar’ jobs, but this time it looks like it will be ‘white-collar’ office jobs that will be hardest hit.”
“To the individual, it promises that if we work smarter, we can complete our work more quickly and free up our time for other things,” said the designer. “Productivity should enable us to complete our work in less time, but of course it doesn’t always work out like that. The actual effect is that people work the same amount of hours (or longer), but their expected output is higher.”
“So many of the products we use are about trying to make our lives somehow smoother or more efficient, and the ideology of productivity is part of our lives whether we like it or not,” he added.
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