Timely ‘Data’ Sheds Light on Dark Potential of AI

In the first scene of Matthew Libby’s “Data,” two young men stand at opposite ends of a ping-pong table that will figure prominently in the one-act play. They will identify themselves, within moments, as tech bros, first by their jargon. They reference “real-time CEP analysis,” whatever that is, and a top-secret project being undertaken by the elite data analytics team at their company.We’ll soon learn more about that company, Athena Technologies, and the project, but suffice it to say the subject of this intriguing if sometimes didactic play is artificial intelligence, and the moral and ethical dilemmas it increasingly poses. Mr. Libby has posted several quotes at the top of his script, among them this doozy by Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI: “AI will probably most likely (sic) lead to the end of the world, but in the meantime, there’ll be great companies.”If such callous recklessness and greed rank high among the vices many associate with Mr. Altman and his peers and acolytes, and the corporations they oversee, “Data” is particularly concerned with how the private sector can empower other forces in insidious pursuits — in this case, government surveillance. The kind of surveillance in question here had already been a hot-button issue for years when Mr. Libby’s play was first produced back in 2024. But the new, off-Broadway staging that marks its New York premiere arrives as that controversy has hit a fever pitch, factoring into tragedies that have made national news headlines in recent weeks.It’s relevant that one of those tech bros introduced in the play’s first scene, Maneesh, is the son of Indian immigrants, and another character that we’ll meet later, Alex, was born in Singapore to East Asian parents. Alex manages Athena’s analytics team, and he wants Maneesh, a brilliant 22-year-old who has been slumming it in the company’s “user experience” department — the bros refer to it as “UX” — to join his crew.Maneesh is ambivalent: As a college undergrad, he developed an algorithm to predict the performance of baseball players, arriving at a model that could be applied far beyond the sport and thus drawing the attention of investment firms, lobbying groups, and an oil company. A confirmed idealist, Maneesh took legal means to protect the moral integrity of his work; now he is suspicious of Alex’s interest — with good reason, as it turns out.The manager, as cool and slick as Maneesh is anxious and earnest, cleverly appeals to the recent graduate’s sense of responsibility and, once he’s reeled him in, their similar backgrounds. “It’s about people like us having a seat at the table,” Alex tells Maneesh. Justin H. Min gives the older character just the sort of icy charisma you’d expect; it’s easy to imagine him pitching Mr. Altman over bottles of designer water at Davos.Karan Brar’s Maneesh is his perfect foil. A former child actor known to fans of a certain age (and their parents) for his roles in the movie “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” and the Disney Channel series “Jessie” and “Bunk’d,” Mr. Brar can still project a post-adolescent awkwardness, and a purity of sprit that makes the guileless genius he’s playing here seem credible.There are two other characters in “Data,” both white, though the more sympathetic one, not surprisingly, happens to be female: Riley, another brainiac who attended the same school as Maneesh and plays a key role in recruiting him for the analytics job. As a woman, Riley has suffered indignities ranging from having a professor ask her to get him coffee — the horror! — to getting hit on by her male co-workers.Like Maneesh, Riley wants to “do the right thing” — both use that expression — and Sophia Lillis, an alumna of the “It” horror films, matches the nervous energy that Mr. Brar brings to his performance, and adds to it a sense of barely contained rage.But the dark horse in “Data” is Jonah, Maneesh’s ping-pong buddy, whose apparently limited intelligence and buffoonish antics belie a primal cunning that’s revealed in a key plot twist. Brandon Flynn, another young screen veteran whose credits include “13 Reasons Why” and “True Detective,” plays down his leading-man looks for the part, and evolves compellingly from a seeming doofus to something more sinister.Director Tyne Rafaeli sustains a brisk pace and an air of anxiety that’s enhanced between scenes by noise and flash provided by Daniel Kluger’s sound design and electronic music and Amith Chandrashaker’s lighting. Marsha Ginsberg’s sleek, minimalist scenic design adds to the chilling atmosphere; the last image is of Maneesh, alone at that table, freshly resolved.“I’m doing something that my algorithm would’ve never predicted me doing,” he has just informed us, adding, “There have to be things in this world that can’t be quantified.” This theory contrasts sharply with the perspective suggested by Mr. Altman’s words; let’s hope that at least some of Maneesh’s idealism is warranted.

Timely ‘Data’ Sheds Light on Dark Potential of AI

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