The cinematic genius known as Werner Herzog turns his camera toward the future of artificial intelligence in his latest documentary.

Although he's been making both fiction films and documentaries since 1968, the German director has never really crossed over into sci-fi territory in any of his work (and only horror once, with his eerie 1979 remake of Nosferatu). Yet Herzog is one of our greatest living filmmaking treasures. so it's a rare treat to write about a new project of his here at Blastr.

That film is a new documentary called Lo And Behold: Reveries Of The Connected World, in which he explores the evolution of artificial intelligence and poses some fascinating questions about its current state and future, such as: Is the Internet conscious and aware of itself? Will it ever communicate with us on its own terms? And will future human beings even have relationships with each other, or with artificial beings?

If you've seen any of Herzog's recent documentaries, like The White Diamond, Grizzly Man or Encounters at the End of the World (and even earlier ones such as Lessons of Darkness), you know that his approach to his subjects is deeply intimate, exhaustive and often either unsettling or awe-inspiring. I can't wait to see what he does with the increasingly relevant topic of A.I.

Lo And Behold debuts at the Sundance Film Festival this week, with a trailer online now. An official release date has yet to be announced.

(via The Playlist)