Useful Reads | I’m Not A Robot
Useful Reads
A recurring feature offering a brief overview, review, or response to a recent article, book, podcast, film, or theatre piece at the intersection of psychoanalysis and AI
“Ik ben geen robot” (“I’m Not A Robot”) (2023)
Directed by Victoria Warmerdam
2025 Academy Award Best Live Action Short
By Robert C Hsiung, MD
Have you ever wondered what it might be like to be an AI?
AI is rapidly advancing, and we often think about how it affects us—but rarely do we consider what it might be like to be this new “other”. I’m Not a Robot (“Ik ben geen robot”), a striking 20-minute film directed by Victoria Warmerdam, invites us into this unsettling perspective. What begins as a routine moment in a modern workplace—a woman struggles with a frustrating software issue—quickly spirals into something more. As she seeks support, an unexpected question shakes the foundations of her reality.
This film is more than just about AI—it’s an evocative exploration of identity, memory, and the unconscious forces that shape our sense of self. For those attuned to psychoanalytic thought, I’m Not a Robot offers a rich and unsettling terrain: the uncanny, the constructed self, and the limits of autonomy in a world mediated by technology. As an Asian American psychotherapist associating with American psychoanalysts, I feel “other”, but this film takes those experiences to another level: Is it enough just to be? Do I also need to belong?
Whether you come away with existential dread, intellectual fascination, something in between, or all of the above, this is a film that lingers.
From an interview with Victoria Warmerdam about the film:
It is really just a formality: passing the ‘I’m not a robot’ check during a software update. Still, Lara is unable to convince her computer she is human. Could it be …
The idea for the short film came to me after repeatedly failing CAPTCHAs – those tests on websites that ask you to identify images to prove you’re human. I started to wonder, what if this is how I discover I’m actually a robot? The thought made me laugh at first, but then my imagination took a darker turn. What if you began to suspect that your own partner bought you as a robot? What if your life – and your relationship – turns out not to be real?
“I’m Not a Robot” Wins a 2025 Academy Award. The New Yorker, March 2, 2025
