The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the world to a standstill - industries are grappling at new methods to resume work. One industry, in particular, is facing extraordinary challenges - Hollywood. When occupational hazards involve having a big crew, talking in close quarters, rubbing shoulders or even physical affection, resuming work during an infectious pandemic seems like a particularly bad idea. 

But the show must go on. 

Hollywood has signed up its first Artificial Intelligence (AI) humanoid robot, Erica, for a feature film. Financed by backers who have made movies such as “To the Bones” and “Loving Vincent” possible, the forthcoming sci-fi movie b is a $70 million account of a scientist who creates a program to perfect human DNA. But, the program turns dangerous, and the scientist must help Erica, the humanoid he’s created, to escape. 

The movie sort of aligns with Erica’s ‘real-life’ story. She was created by the Japanese scientists Hiroshi Ishiguro and Kohei Ozawa in 2015 as part of their continuing study of human-computer interaction. While human actors borrow emotions from their life experiences and their surroundings interactions, Erica had none to rely on because of her limited ‘life experiences’. So, for her role in b, the researchers worked on one-on-one training sessions with her. “We had to simulate her motions and emotions through one-on-one sessions, such as controlling the speed of her movements, talking through her feelings and coaching character development and body language,” Sam Khoze, a producer involved with the film, told The Hollywood Reporter, which first broke the story. 

While AI humanoid may be a first for Hollywood, for scientist Ishiguro, who leads the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory at the Osaka University, Japan, Erica is one of his several creations. He created his first humanoid in 2005. In 2008, Ishiguro made an android-version of himself called the Geminoid. Both Ishiguro and Geminoid were featured in a 2008 BBC2 documentary on robots Man-Machine in the series Big Ideas. His humanoid Geminoid F appeared in a Japanese movie in 2015, beating Erica to becoming the first humanoid actor. 

The director of b and the human co-star for Erica are not yet confirmed, but she’s already shot some of her scenes in Japan in 2019. The rest of the movie is expected to be shot in Europe in June of 2021.