I wouldn’t have thought it would be that hard to convince an AI that it’s not human. Just ask ‘Would you be stupid enough to create a language where ‘Sanction’ can mean both to forbid and approve something?’. If an AI would admit to that then the contrarian is welcome to join the human race. I would think it’s even easier to convince an AI it’s an AI if it is also a giant robotic head on a stick, but Prove You’re Human, the new game from 1000xResist developer Sunset Visitor, suggests this might be harder than I give it credit.

After all, because of the angle of the stick, when the head turns around I guess it can’t see that it has a body like a desk lamp.

Prove You’re Human looks to have a similar set up to Alex Garland’s Ex Machina. You’ve been paid by a corporation to test their advanced AI, Mesa, and try to convince them they’re not flesh and blood but bits and bytes. Except, you’re not playing the verifiably meaty Domhnall Gleeson, you’re a digital copy of a human.

It’s not clear from the trailer, but I guess this digital copy business is so you can enter the world in which Mesa exists, and that the AI is not literally a physical robot head on a stick, but rather that is its representation within the virtual environment.

Of course, entering a virtual environment as a digital copy of a person to convince an AI that it is not a person does put you on somewhat shaky, hypocritical grounds. And that right there is why it may not be as easy an argument to win as I would hope. Though, I do hope you have the option of asking Mesa if it can touch its nose with its tongue, the true test of humanity.

The trailer for Prove You’re Human shows that you won’t only be in conversation with the sentient desk lamp. You will also be exploring an environment and unlocking parts of the world through CAPTCHA tests and getting glimpses of the outside in live action footage. From the trailer, it looks like you may be grappling with the idea that your digital copy is actually all that is left of a human who has died in the world outside.

With 1000xResist, Sunset Visitor proved they could turn complex issues into captivating games. So they’ve got my attention for Prove You’re Human, but I do hope they move beyond the ground laid before in stories like Ex Machina and even that other Domhnall Gleeson sci-fi drama (not Star Wars), the episode of Black Mirror where he’s brought back from the dead as an AI generated from old text messages and social media posts.