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The Artifice Girl is a 2023 science fiction psychological thriller by writer/director Franklin Ritch. It stars Tatum Matthews, David Girard, Lance Henriksen, and Franklin Ritch. NGO agents discover a revolutionary computer program that uses a digital child to catch online predators. However, they soon learn that the AI's inevitable advancement is far more rapid and deeper than they ever could have imagined, posing unforeseen challenges for the relationship between humans and AI. The Artifice Girl won the gold award for best international feature at the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal, on August 3, 2022.

Plot
The movie is divided into three acts. The first act takes place inside an interrogation room where Deena and Amos interrogate Gareth about both his career and online activities. At this point, the audience doesn’t know these characters and has no idea why they are in that room. As the film progresses, the revelation comes in stages.

In the second act, we see Cherry’s evolution beyond her programming and the team’s struggle to understand what is happening.

The third act is set in the future where Gareth, now an elderly man played by Lance Henriksen, must defend his actions in using Cherry, now fully sentient, as a decoy for horrible perverts.

Cast

 * Tatum Matthews as Cherry, the AI tool created to uncover pedophile activity on the Internet
 * Sinda Nichols as Deena, a no-nonsence investigator
 * David Girard as Amos, an agent under Deena
 * Franklin Ritch as Gareth, a brilliant but haunted computer genius
 * Lance Henriksen as elderly Gareth

Critical response
Noel Murray of Los Angeles Times said "The action is in the dialogue, which presents a series of invigorating arguments about where the ethical lines are when it comes to creating and then exploiting an intelligent computer program." Variety praised the film as a "thought-provoking speculative drama about AI bait for pnline predators. Franklin Ritch's intriguing debut feature is intelligent, non-action-oriented sci-fi about the ethics of fast-developing technology."

Accolades
Fantasia Review said The Artifice Girl explores "the ethical dilemmas surrounding the applications of artificial intelligence are given a vigorous work-out in writer/director Franklin Ritch’s smart, dialogue-heavy sci-fi thriller which explores qualms about the use of increasingly sophisticated digital technologies to attract and potentially trap online child predators." It gave The Artifice Girl the gold award for best international feature at the Fantasia International Film Festival.