Chris Pratt and Rebecca Ferguson on courtroom drama 'Mercy': 'AI should aid humans, not be an alternative to humans'

Chris Pratt and costar Rebecca Ferguson are venturing into bold new territory with their upcoming film 'Mercy', a thriller that takes AI to the courtroom. Ahead of the film's release, the lead stars got candid about their latest outing and also shared their thoughts on the heated debate surrounding AI entering the film industry and other walks of life. In a statement, Pratt, who in the film is faced with the task of proving his innocence while going up against a complex web of digital perspectives, said, “When I first read 'Mercy', I thought it was an inventive mystery story unlike anything I’d read before, which is saying a lot because I read everything! But this really caught my attention.” At its core, 'Mercy' plays out as a tense courtroom drama, but Pratt is quick to point out that his latest film is “a ‘multi-genre’ film - it’s a courtroom drama, a thriller, a mystery, and an action film."While the actor, may have ventured through galaxies in Marvel's 'Guardians of the Galaxy', but he says, “This film is unlike anything I’ve done before. We had one camera on me the whole time, and we were doing 40-minute or 50-minute takes."Shedding light on the scale of the shoothe added, “All the evidence that in the story is provided for the trial - what the film calls ‘the LA Municipal Cloud’ - was shot using iPhones, doorbell cams, GoPros simulating body cameras on police officers, drone cameras, video feeds, so many things. At any given time, we had dozens of cameras rolling. I just assumed everything was being filmed all the time!"Set in a near future where artificial intelligence has replaced human judges, 'Mercy' raises unsettling questions about technology’s growing authority over truth and justice. Rebecca Ferguson, who plays Judge Maddox, an AI judge overseeing the trial, shared her thoughts about the role that seems uncomfortably close to reality.“Playing Judge Maddox, an AI who is on the cusp of human understanding, so near to consciousness and yet light years away from being human, brings up many interesting questions. We expect accuracy from technology, but more and more we need to question what the online world is telling us,” Ferguson says.Sharing her thoughts on the growing influence of AI, Ferguson said, “Artificial Intelligence is a fantastic tool, but it should always be just that — a tool to aid humans, not an alternative to humans. This film highlights some of the ways relying on AI could go very wrong.”The film is set to release in theatres in English and Hindi on Friday, January 23.