If artificial intelligence can simulate a dead loved one — responding in their voice to new information and scenarios — maybe it can also help solve a dead loved one’s disappearance. After all, AI excels at scouring vast amounts of data for patterns.
In “Anthropology,” now in a City Lights Theater Company production, AI expert Merril (Maria Marquis) couldn’t resist the temptation to recreate her sister, Angie.
“I just miss you, terribly, terribly, horribly, awfully much,” she says.
To accomplish that, she feeds all the real Angie’s data to the AI version of Angie (Tiffany Cartagena) — “Every text, email, voicemail. Search history, calls, FaceTime, calendar invites, purchases, returns… the likes, hearts, retweets, comments.”
But now robot Angie wants to use that same data to figure out what happened to human Angie 13 months ago.
A principal pleasure of Lauren Gunderson’s script, whose Northern California premiere is directed by Lisa Mallette, is the profanity-laden banter between the sisters.
“Dunno what you mean but it seems like a you problem,” robot Angie says early on. “Which is why you should not talk to me about your mental health because I’m just going to tell you to take drugs and watch movies, OK.”