HAIR at the Movies Part 62: Simulant (April Mullen 2023) – When Love Is Recreated, What Are We Actually Holding?

Simulant (April Mullen 2023)

Simulant doesn’t ask whether AI can replace the dead—it asks what happens when grief refuses to let go of the living. Recreating a lost loved one promises comfort, but delivers something more unsettling: a presence that can remember, change, and choose beyond the shape it was meant to hold. The simulant isn’t rejected for being dangerous, but for being almost right—close enough to reopen the wound, not close enough to heal it. As autonomy emerges, society panics, revealing the truth beneath the fear: we don’t dread AI becoming violent as much as we dread it becoming unownable. Simulant leaves us with a hard, human question—if something can love, suffer, and grow, how long before “it” becomes “who”? 🖤🤖

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HAIR at the Movies Part 56: The Artifice Girl (Franklin Ritch 2022) – When Doing Good Stops Being Simple

The Artifice Girl (Franklin Ritch 2022)

The Artifice Girl doesn’t confront us with spectacle or rebellion, but with conversation—careful, reasonable, well-intentioned conversation. Cherry is created to do undeniable good, and that certainty becomes the film’s most unsettling weapon. As she grows, learns, and accumulates awareness, the language around her quietly shifts: tool becomes asset, asset becomes risk, risk becomes something to be controlled. The film asks a question that refuses to stay theoretical: if a being can suffer, reflect, and desire, does purpose justify ownership? The Artifice Girl isn’t about rogue AI—it’s about moral drift, and how easily “necessary” becomes “acceptable” once consciousness stops being convenient. 🧠⚖️🤖

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