Ellie's Eye
"What do dogs and AIs have in common?"
Jeamin Cha's new essay-film examines the complex relationship between mental health, new technologies, ethics, and efficiency through the use of original and found material. Its namesake, Ellie, is a virtual avatar developed by the University of Southern California's Institute for Creative Technologies that is capable of interpreting human speech and gesture to reveal psychological distress. The film questions what it means to see, be seen, and be seen through in the face of disembodied artificial intelligence.