RE: Ex Machina (film): a real mindf**k for sci-fi nerds

The Alex Garland film "Ex Machina" might look like just one of the annoying variations on "transhumanism", singularity, the ultimate accession of artificial intelligence - and to some extent it quite follows this theme. There are, however, several points that demonstrate the shift in the plot of competition between human and artificial intelligence. I agree with the comment roki112 that the English picture reminds of the stylistics of the famous British science fiction series "Black Mirror".
In the Turing test, the verification frame itself could not be questioned: the machine must speak as a routine, since it cannot want to refuse such a dialogue. In "Ex Machina" the intellect starts from the place when it turns out that she not only refuses to talk with the person, but also uses this conversation herself purely instrumentally, manipulatively, in order to literally open the door. Perhaps, speech is the main human vulnerability, and not some generic difference (in the course of the film in the film indicate that a person is not too different from a machine that has received the entire language at once, without training, because for him the language in some sense also congenital). Of course, a person is capable of instrumentalizing his own speech - at first the tester speaks with Ava not for the sake of "communication", but to check how much she is capable of speaking at all. This instrumentalization is easily disavowed by the machine, which Caleb manages to shame: how could she "think" that he talks to her heart-to-heart, and he actually only checks it! In other words, speech remains an ineradicable vulnerability because it is impossible to carry out full instrumentalization, not accompanied by signs of sincerity, interest in the interlocutor, the pursuit of truth, etc. The robot Ava skillfully manipulates the fact that a person cannot "just manipulate" or be in his speech completely free from those effects of truth and sincerity that he produces - as it seems to him, quite distanced, "technically", "purely on business" and etc. All these effects are collected in one package, which is sent to the person as a target, punching a gap in it.