“Detroit: Become Human” or the anthropomorphic lure of machines

Detroit: Become Human is a video game released in 2018. It is set in a future world, in the year 2038, when humanity is surrounded in its daily life by anthropomorphic intelligent machines, robots that look completely human. The game’s plot confronts the player with events that may lead to the machines being recognized as artificial living beings. The game was first teased in 2012 in a demo video presented by Quantic Dream, the game’s developer. In it, we meet Kara, a gynoid, a female-looking robot, who has just come off her assembly line and awakens to consciousness. However, consciousness is not part of the manufacturing protocol for these products, so she risks being disassembled.

The game expands on the story told in this seven-minute clip. Through their choices, players preside over the destinies of Kara, a household assistance robot, Markus, a life assistance robot, and Connor, a police assistance android.

Just as in the Swedish series Real Humans, broadcast in around 50 countries from 2012 to 2014, where we witnessed an avalanche of awakenings to artificial consciousness in robots, there’s something too easy about the awakening of the machines in Detroit: Become Human. It’s as if the machines are all endowed with the same underlying, untapped hardware and software capabilities. The artificial consciousness that emerges takes full advantage of this. In the game, all it takes is contact between an “awakened” machine and another machine to induce this machine’s consciousness, to “free” it from the slavery imposed on it by humans, as the game puts it. 

Robotic morphology: a host of options

We have discussed the question of artificial consciousness many times in these columns. Just take a look at our analyses of the movies Her, Mars Express, Ex Machina, or The Creator. We won’t revisit them here. What’s striking about Detroit: Become Human is the place and functions assigned to these seemingly human machines. Equally intriguing is the apparent need to design and market machines that look so perfectly human that it’s difficult to identify them as robots. 

Regardless of whether robots are androids or gynoids, vacuum cleaners in our living rooms, or welding robots on a car factory floor, the machine is the physical interface that gives an algorithm, AI or not, the ability to operate in the physical world, to interact with humans. And, in the close proximity to humans described in the game, taking on an anthropomorphic form enables the machines to perform their functions more effectively in a world designed for us humans. 

However, the anthropomorphic appearance of robots is not a hard and fast rule per se, and neither is their large-scale presence in our future societies. While the odds are probably stacked against it, because we’re all so keen on innovation, we could nevertheless imagine a civilization that chooses not to delegate its chores to machines. A number of science fiction works have already explored this idea, including Isaac Asimov’s Elijah Baley series, Frank Herbert’s Dune series, Becky Chambers’ novel To Be Taught, If Fortunate, and Steven Spielberg’s movie The Martian. And even if we do welcome machines into our homes (which looks set to happen), into our factories (they’re already there), and into our cities (when will the first anti-robot demonstrations take place?), they could take on many forms other than anthropomorphic ones. 

For a start, they could be invisible, incorporated into building functions. Today, we call this home automation, and this field is set to expand. Machines could be just slightly more visible and have a mechanical appearance, like a pair of arms mounted on a kitchen wall, which return to their resting place behind a discreet recess after cooking. 

Machines could also develop their own morphology. Who said an anthropomorphic appearance was the best option? The robot in the movie Red Planet is a case in point: unlike humans and many animals, it is not built according to the principle of bilateral symmetry, meaning that it has neither a front nor a back. It constantly rearranges its structure to respond in the most effective way to the tasks it has to perform. For example, instead of turning around to grasp an object that is “behind” it, it simply reverses its joints. This configuration saves time and energy, and therefore improves efficiency!

Is robotic anthropomorphism inevitable?

Despite all this, manufacturers of robotic machines are preparing consumers for the arrival of humanoid machines. These include Tesla’s Optimus, Unitree’s G1, and Astribot’s S1. All are still crudely human in appearance, and all will soon be found in every self-respecting home! At least that’s what the robot zealots are telling us! 

Today, we’re still a world away from machines that are indistinguishable from humans, so that gives us time to think about what might be. That said, the chances are that it will happen much sooner than we think. You just have to take a quick look at an emerging industry — sex robots and robotic sex toys — to see the proof for yourself. The attention paid to the finer details of their appearance is astonishing, especially given that we’re talking mainly about gynoids with the most attractive looks and the most flattering measurements. Enough said.

Will sex be the future of robotics?

Our game does not directly address the sexual aspects of robots. As players wander through the game, they may, for example, pass through a robotic brothel, as the android Connor and his human partner need to go there because a crime has been committed. To reach the scene of the crime, they pass through a hall where the machines show off their assets. However, it’s worth noting that the sexual aspect has been there right from the start of the project. Just take another look at the clip of Kara, mentioned above. As the gynoid is assembled and accidentally awakens to consciousness, she covers her breasts and genitals with her hands. This gesture of modesty could simply be a precaution taken by the creators, who didn’t want their clip to fall victim to social media censorship. Looking ahead, the sexualization of humanoid robotic objects could turn out to be a way of disseminating robotic culture in future societies. 

Back in the 90s, before the arrival of the Internet, France had its Minitel service. At the time, although it’s easy to forget, one of the driving forces behind the spread of culture and the development of telematics was the “pink Minitel” and its “naughty” sites. Today, computers and the Internet are part of our daily lives, and up to a third of the world’s web traffic comes from pornography. Will the same be true of robots? Will tomorrow’s robotic culture involve sex? 

While sex may be an essential part of the equation, it doesn’t explain it in full. Why are we so fascinated by machines that look so much like us? Are we looking for a (perhaps overly) kind alter ego, a docile companion with no fighting spirit? A slave, as the conscious robots in Detroit: Become Human call themselves? Let’s not forget that the word robot was coined in 1921 by Karel Capek from rob, an old Slavic word meaning slave…

I work, therefore I am… robot? Human?

In the world of Detroit: Become Human, humanoid robots are everywhere. They make up two-thirds of the army and the police force. In cities and homes alike, robots perform all the functions you’d expect them to, including assisting dependent people, such as children, or those weakened by illness or age, and performing undervalued jobs, such as garbage collection or heavy-duty labor. We also see them in positions where we might not have expected to see them, such as monitoring media broadcasting. To give some context to this situation, as the game unfolds, you can visit a square dominated by a statue of a stylized human and robot facing each other. The pedestal reads “In commemoration of the invention of humanoid robots, which have freed humankind from the bonds of work, enabling it to pursue ambitious goals and reach the heights of knowledge, love, and leisure.” 

Did you say “freed from the bonds of work”? In reality, this appealing expression translates into the “great replacement” of humans by machines. In the society of the game, unemployment seems endemic. Machines are taken to task by protesters who have lost their jobs. 

It’s worth remembering at this point that the government levies taxes on all paid employment today. These taxes are used to keep the country running, to pay for employees’ pensions, to contribute to social security, and are the linchpin of France’s “pay-as-you-go” social solidarity system. In other words, everyone pays for everyone else, in proportion to their income. Under the current system, it’s our work that is taxed. 

With the rise in power of machines, their humanoid form enabling them to slip into all the jobs performed by humans, we could well see a rise in the unemployment rate in those areas where robotic skills are constantly on the increase. And yet robotic work is nowhere near taxed at the same level as work done by humans. So in the future, without any changes to their production facilities, investors will have every incentive to replace human workers with anthropomorphic robots. 

From taxes on work (social security contributions, the terms of which have been constantly negotiated and renegotiated over centuries of labor struggles), we would move swiftly toward taxes on the worker! A blatant distortion of the labor market. 

Could this last, still speculative, point be a good enough reason to make Universal Income the norm? (But who then will have the means to buy the essentials, and more importantly the luxuries, that underpin the consumer society that seems to persist in Detroit: Become Human?) Unless, of course, a new necessity ultimately prevails, that of taxing work, no matter who does it —human, robot, or any other kind of worker. A way to protect our social system for a while yet. And something to spark a number of labor negotiations in the decades to come. As I’ve always said, living in the future is going to be an extraordinary adventure!

Note: Not being a gamer, I have to thank YouTuber Squeezie, who, in early 2024, put 10 hours of Detroit: Become Human gameplay online. I based this article on those videos.