History rewritten in Vivy, but why is AI technology accelerating?
The flaw in Matsumoto’s plan to rewrite history and slow the development of AI’s becomes very apparent in this episode. 5 years have passed since the space station fell and the AI onboard saved everyone, sacrificing herself. Rather than slowing AI development, AI development accelerated nearly twenty years with an autonomous island now being used to construct AI parts.
Then again, maybe this was all in Matsumoto’s original plan. While he has told Vivy they are trying to slow down AI development, every action they’ve so far taken has had the opposite effect. Or maybe I’m just paranoid because Matsumoto seems really shady. Either way, Vivy’s latest mission seems straight forward enough – turn off the island. What could go wrong with that?
Another interesting point in this episode is that a previously significant moment, a human marrying an AI for the first time, has been rendered less pivotal by the changes in the timeline. Vivy meets a man who is being chased by, I’m guessing TOAK, and saves him in a less than visually spectacular car chase before he essentially reveals his plan is the same as Vivy’s and he gives her a vial which apparently holds a computer program that will shut down the island.
There are so many things wrong with this plan and yet Vivy and Matsumoto just kind of nod and go, okay.
For instance, while Matsumoto apparently ‘tests’ the program, there is no guarantee it does what the guy has said it would do. More importantly, who makes an entire island that can be shut down by a single program? That seems like a serious design flaw. Also, why is the guy being chased? Plus, the chase ends because Matsumoto once again conveniently controls things like road safety devices but only when it is narratively convenient for him to do so. Which again makes me wonder why Vivy is even needed.
Logical failings aside, I liked the episode. While at first it seemed that Vivy’s impact on the original timeline was minimal, as we move further along we see greater ripples forming and we’re moving further away from the original. I can’t imagine Matsumoto’s knowledge is going to be overly relevant if this trend continues given how far we seem to have already diverged. I also liked that previous pivotal moments are now simply an event that occurs.
Vivy seeing the island and meeting the AI there was also interesting enough, however there was always a sense that something was about to go horribly wrong. It was just a matter of what the cause was going to be. Well, throw in a TOAK attack for reasons… I legitimately have no idea what they are trying to accomplish at this point. They are anti-AI but how does heading toward the island in a couple of tiny boats help? Then the obvious failure of the program Vivy was given to actually shut the island down and there we have a cliff-hanger for the next episode in what has become Vivy’s basic formula.
On the bright side, or maybe not, we might actually have an encounter between Vivy and the random terrorist she has continued to save since the first mission given she’s once again saved him from death after he nearly drowned. Then again, I doubt he’ll be grateful. He wasn’t the last time either.
Vivy continues to be entertaining to watch. I like seeing the progression of her character through the various times and the plot continues to intrigue. Where it is probably going to fail is because of the time restrictions it has (trying to tell the story it seems to be aiming for in a single season – though maybe they intend to go longer, who knows) a lot of things just kind of have to happen leaving us with questions and moments that make us scratch our heads. Basically, you can’t pick at the minutia. On the surface, this story works well. Any detailed picking into the premise will unravel it so it is best to just suspend disbelief and go.
Images used for review from: Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song. Dir. S Ezaki. Wit Studio. 2021.
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Karandi James
I’m feeling the same at times, feels best to be swept along with events but I am wondering about about Matsumoto – I’m growing increasingly suspicious of him 😀
Maybe he’s actually the villain? Curious to see what happens next.
It would be a really obvious twist if Matsumoto is actually the villain so I keep trying to dismiss the thought, but he is definitely raising some flags.
Yep, I’m waiting for Vivy to return to being super-wary of him. Maybe it’s a double-bluff?