Kore-eda Brings AI-Grief Drama to 79th Cannes Competition as Critics Cool on 'Sheep in the Box'
Updated
Updated · Reuters · May 17
Kore-eda Brings AI-Grief Drama to 79th Cannes Competition as Critics Cool on 'Sheep in the Box'
4 articles · Updated · Reuters · May 17
Hirokazu Kore-eda unveiled "Sheep in the Box" at the 79th Cannes Film Festival, using a near-future story to ask whether AI should recreate a dead child to ease parents' grief.
A Chinese entrepreneur building systems that simulate deceased people sparked the idea, Kore-eda said, after he saw how such AI could keep forming new relationships rather than merely replaying memories.
Haruka Ayase and Daigo Yamamoto play grieving parents who adopt a humanoid child built from their dead son's data and memories, only to face fresh loss when it begins pursuing its own ties.
"Sheep in the Box" is one of 22 films competing for Cannes' top prize on May 23, though early reviews from The Hollywood Reporter and IndieWire were largely skeptical.
As China mass-produces humanoid robots, is the AI child in the film a warning about our very near future?
Can AI truly help us grieve, or does digitally resurrecting the dead only deepen our collective trauma?
When an AI child develops its own goals, who is legally responsible: its creators or its grieving 'parents'?