Krattid – farm spirits and chilling images of the future

VINCENT TEETSOV

In Rainer Sarnet’s 2017 film “November”, these horrifying beings roam around farmland with just enough human-like characteristics to be considered both useful for work and grisly to the extent that you’d want to keep them working indefinitely, so they leave you alone.

Kratt is a word that creates such a vivid image in the Estonian consciousness that it was used to identify a potential piece of legislation about artificial intelligence. The debate was over whether AI would receive special legal status. In the end, creators of AI are still legally responsible for their products.

The folk stories of the kratt reach deep down into the recesses of a not particularly profound idea – how can we get work done when we ourselves don’t want to get up and do it? If this was the origin of AI, then it certainly doesn’t sound as noble as how Ott Velsberg, Chief Data Officer of the Estonian government, describes machine learning. In an interview with Sifted, he stated, “We are not getting rid of people, but enhancing what they can do.”

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Film still from Rainer Sarnet’s film “November”.