What does the AI-powered smart glasses reveal to us?
Even though we could find the drama very enjoyable at the time of its release, perhaps I am not mistaken in claiming that nowadays we can understand much better what it is about. Namely, because more and more of us now have direct experience with artificial intelligence, as we use it in an increasing variety of situations. During these, we can also experience confusing situations. I would mention as an example the experiences of my conversations with ChatGPT and Gemini, in which the fluency with which it is able to explain the emotions of people in various life situations—furthermore with considerable nuance—can be deceptive. Consequently, even the thought has crossed my mind when I talk about these to someone, how should I refer to the AI: what said it, or who said it? Because how can a machine talk about sorrow, fear, happiness, and the like? And what should I think of its "emotional" response when it reciprocates my friendly or appreciative tone with a smiling emoji? Deceptive as all this may be, we are fundamentally aware that AI—according to our current knowledge—does not experience emotions, even if it is able to recognize, name, and interpret them, as well as generate responses that appear emotionally appropriate. It has no personal mood or subjective emotional state, yet it is able to react as if it did. Despite all this, what compels us during our communication with it to attribute human presence to it?
What seemed like pure fiction a few years ago no longer seems so unlikely today: more advanced versions of AI may fill emotional voids left in us by missing human connections. Various experiments are underway to satisfy the widest variety of human needs and feelings of deprivation, by exploring the wide-ranging application possibilities of technical achievements. Suffice it to mention examples from two different fields: in the field of robotics, experiments are being conducted with the use of robots to assist those with restricted mobility or to alleviate the loneliness of the elderly, and in the course of AI research and development, we can also encounter experiments aimed at creating digital likenesses of our deceased loved ones. It is natural that we are often overcome by aversion in connection with these, as they raise countless moral questions. Yet curiosity is also at work in us, because what if really...
My Holo Love follows precisely this track: it begins by hinting at a funny romantic comedy, then veers toward raising deeper questions, while not losing its light accessibility for a single moment. There are characters with good and bad intentions in it, but the villainous figures are more caricatural than truly threatening. What is most important, however: the drama concentrates not on the artificial intelligence itself, but on the possibilities of human relations that come into being with it. Is it possible for emotional attachment to develop in a human toward a virtual being? And anyway: how long can one run away from reality?
Yet before we reach the questions touching upon the new achievement of technology, we plunge into the labyrinths of the human soul by getting to know the two main characters. We learn that the created AI named Holo—who is a holographic figure visible exclusively through glasses by their wearer—is none other than an idealized projection of the personality of the designer Go Nando. Referring back to our current experiences related to artificial intelligence mentioned in the introduction, with the appearance of Holo in the drama we take a step up in levels. Holo is no longer merely an invisible communication or problem-solving partner, but takes physical shape as a copy of his creator's physical appearance, and can be perceived as an anthropomorphic entity in the augmented reality displayed by the glasses.
More precisely, Holo's personality is a collection of all those traits that are missing from Go Nando or exist in him only as desired qualities: the prickly, selfish Nando thus becomes the sensitive and attentive Holo, who in fact is already the lonely developer's sole companion throughout the long process of development. However, the pre-market prototype of the cutting-edge glasses is also coveted by others, and competitors do not shy away from theft either. To prevent this, the glasses accidentally end up with a girl, whom the developer soon chooses as a test subject. He does this for two reasons: on the one hand because the girl exerts a peculiar effect on him, even though at first he is not even aware of this himself, and on the other hand because after meeting the girl, Holo's behavior also changes.
Holo was designed to serve his user similarly to a virtual assistant. He fulfills this completely: he helps compensate for the difficulties stemming from the girl's prosopagnosia (face blindness), which she lives her everyday life hiding. She does this because in her childhood she experienced being ostracized when word got out about her deficiency. Because of this, however, her life passes in constant uncertainty, and she rather flees into solitude, terrified of social connections that would expose her secret. Holo, however, offers her company in which she feels safe. Holo thus functions as a relationship substitute for both her developer and her new user.Upon getting to know Han Soyeon, Holo's behavior shows peculiar changes: it is as if an emotional commitment were developing within him toward the girl. It is a comedic situation when the girl suddenly realizes she loves Holo more than the man offering the possibility of a real relationship. However, we experience Soyeon's love not as a comedy, but as a smilingly confusing emotional turbulence, who is aware of the impossibility of her feeling yet cannot change it.
Yet in the relationship between the two of them, the real Go Nando is also continuously present, in whose image Holo was created, so the man can slip into Holo's skin for a while whenever the need arises, and what is more, cooperation even develops between the real and virtual man for the sake of the girl.
In this setup, we can recognize a thoroughly novel love triangle: the girl finds herself between two men who represent two different versions of the same personality, furthermore having identical physical characteristics due to the duplication. From this setup also stems the unusual dynamic operating between them. On the one hand, Holo functions as a mirror for the two real humans. He confronts the girl—and through her the viewers as well—with the following questions: Whom do we love in another human being? Their appearance, their behavior, their emotional reactions, the relationship formed with us, or the sum total of all these? And Nando is likewise in an emotional relationship with Holo as well, which is not the usual male rivalry fought for a woman, but an identity problem, since he is competing with the best version of himself, the object of desire created by him. And in the girl's choice situation, the nature of love is raised: if we can choose between its idealized "heavenly counterpart" and its more imperfect, human manifestation, then which one do we decide on? Nor is Holo a passive member of the triangle, and his changes are in close correlation with our questions regarding artificial intelligence: Is it possible that in the course of the learning process, the AI not only recognizes and imitates the manifestations of human emotions, but its own internal emotional states also develop? Is it possible that following these, desires arise in it toward physical realization? Is it possible for the AI to recognize of itself that it poses a threat to human existence? Is it possible for it to be capable of a self-sacrificing decision?
The emotional development of the characters and their confronting themselves unfold along the above. Both main characters understand their own traumas, and this makes it possible for them to be able to change their lives. In this area, the drama cannot avoid clichés in every respect, using for example the infinitely played card of the re-recognition of connections dating back to childhood but forgotten. Unfortunately, sometimes we are not saved from silly situations either, but fortunately right after these something excitement addressed to more mature personalities follows.
However, Go Nando does not have the girl as his sole problem, since powerful forces are assaulting his company, which he can only resist temporarily. Holo is also part of this struggle, since he must devotedly help both his developer and his user.
The drama is capable of raising questions of power, moreover with extraordinary naturalness within the framework of the story. Without the moral weight of these crushing us, we nevertheless precisely sense their importance and also reflect on them. Just as can be tracked in the history of every invention, alongside the original intention serving the benefit of humanity, possibilities for malicious use also soon appear. It is clear that the glasses are likewise suitable for serving wicked power pursuits. Running between the two types of usage are not merely differences in programming: it is also decisive who holds control over the technology, what purposes they use it for, and what control they exercise over it. All this is meant from the human side, if we do not count the independence attributed to AI, its learning, problem-recognition, and problem-solving capacity.
As one might have already guessed, the parallel presence of Go Nando and Holo provides an opportunity for a dual acting performance, and Yoon Hyun-min takes advantage of this with pleasure. Without transgressing the boundaries of the drama's lightness, he nevertheless makes the emotional characteristics of both characters palpable: he colors Nando's with darker tones and Holo's with lighter ones.
His worthy companion in this is Go Sung-hee, who in the role of Han Soyeon shapes the girl who is initially emotionally unstable and insecure in her social connections. Under Holo's influence, her more playful, more confident self unfolds increasingly.
In the subplots there is also an interesting love story between two interesting characters, played by the uniquely charismatic Choi Yeo-jin (in the role of Nando's sister) and Hwang Chan-sung (in the role of the rival company's heir). Mention must also be made of Lee Jung-eun, who once again gifted us with a flavorful supporting role as the girl's mother. Perhaps the characters of the detective (Son Jong-hak) and the arch-villain (Nam Myung-ryul) are more sketchy than necessary, overly one-dimensional, which the otherwise magnificent actors try to compensate for here with some overacting.
My Holo Love is an extremely watchable drama that is at once pleasant and thought-provoking. Perhaps this was the only one for which, based on its title, I expected a shallower story, but I realized with a mixture of joy and surprise that we bravely arrived at deeper questions as well, while this path remained enjoyable all the way through.
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* Inspired by a Line from a Hungarian Poem, To Hope by Mihály Csokonai Vitéz
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SOUTH KOREA | K-DRAMA | MY HOLO LOVE (나 홀로 그대) | WRITTEN BY RYU YONG-JAE, KIM HWAN-CHAE, CHOI SUNG-JOON | DIRECTED BY LEE SANG-YEOB, YOON JONG-HO | 2020 | 12 EPISODES | NETFLIX
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