Directed by Marc Isaacs and written by Adam Ganz, Marc Isaacs makes a deal with The Synthetic Sincerity Lab, an AI research project affiliated with the University of Southern England. There, researchers are investigating the possibility of teaching AI characters authenticity, using characters from Isaacs’ documentaries to do so. In return, they allow Isaacs to film the process. Featuring Ilinca Manolache.
With Synthetic Sincerity, Marc Isaacs raises a question of how far you can push the definition of a documentary. Primarily because of the majority of this film is in fact fiction, rather than the traditional non-fiction. Yes, the conversation it’s exploring is very much a part of reality, and the director who features in the documentary is a real person, but the concept relies on elements which are creations of his own. Which is exactly why the film has such a feel of comedy and parody, like if you tried to explore AI using the style of The Office, it’s an odd fit.
Although unsurprisingly, that choice does mean that Marc Isaacs injects a good amount of personality and awkwardness into Synthetic Sincerity. It has an entertaining foundation, and a humble style that’s very plain and everyday. It moves fairly well, seeing as the runtime comes in with a quick seventy-two minutes. Undoubtedly, within its story is some good questions about how AI is primarily used to manipulate and misdirect.
However, the biggest question which lingers all throughout Synthetic Sincerity is: what is this actually achieving? And does it really have something new or valuable to say? And ultimately, the answer viewers will be most likely to arrive at is no. At the end of this experience, it doesn’t feel like you’ve learned anything new about AI, or how it’s infiltrating our world, or anything that can be done about it.
Synthetic Sincerity is unfortunately true to its title and is almost entirely synthetic. It doesn’t feel particularly appropriate to call it a documentary, even docu-drama is fairly generous. You can see the intention behind it and that makes perfect sense, but the execution is muddled. There was the opportunity to make a timely documentary about this topic and explore the real side of it, but instead they chose to take a route that makes up its own rules and doesn’t even employ any examples of real AI.
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