"One day the AIs are going to look back on us the same way we look at fossil skeletons on the plains of Africa. An upright ape living in dust with crude language and tools, all set for extinction."
While talking to Caleb one day, Nathan expresses his belief in the technological singularity, and suggests that the development of artificial intelligence is a societal inevitability. As they drink beer and look out at nature, Nathan imagines a future in which robots look back at human as unsophisticated, un-evolved prototypes for robots.
"Isn't it strange, to create something that hates you?"
Ava says this to Nathan when he looks at the picture she drew of Caleb. Caleb is watching this interaction on the surveillance feed, which he has already seen without sound. Now he is watching it after Nathan informed him that Ava has been programmed to try and escape captivity, and it signals to him that not only does Ava resent Nathan, but that she is doing everything she can to try to get out.
"I'm gonna tear up the fucking dance floor."
On one of his benders, Nathan wants to have a dance party with Kyoko and Caleb. It is an uncharacteristically (and rather hauntingly) lighthearted moment within a very serious film, and portrays Nathan as a hedonistic nerd.
"What will happen to me if I fail your test?"
Ava asks Caleb this in one of their meetings. It signals to Caleb that Ava is worried about her fate, and imagines that there is a risk that she will be deprogrammed by Nathan. It is a moment of Ava performing vulnerability as a way of getting Caleb to sympathize with her.
"It's funny. You know. No matter how rich you get, shit goes wrong. You can't insulate yourself from it. I used to think it was death and taxes you couldn't avoid, but it's actually death and shit."
Nathan confides in Caleb during one of their hangs, suggesting that even though he has more money than he knows what to do with, he still hits roadblocks in his life and in his technological experiments.
"Okay. Fucking unreal. Okay. Ava..."
Nathan says this after Ava stabs him. It is a curious line because it betrays his awe about how heartlessly she can stab him. It is almost as though Nathan is impressed and shocked by his own creation, more than he is scared of dying. It is a surreal moment in which Nathan and the viewer see that Ava has no human emotion and does not feel anything when committing a violent act.
"Ava's not pretending to like you. And her flirting isn't an algorithm to fake you out. You're the first man she's met that isn't me. And I'm like her dad, right? Can you blame her for getting a crush on you?"
Nathan says this to Caleb to convince him that Ava actually likes him, suggesting that the A.I. has developed a genuine crush on him, since he is the first human man she has ever met besides Nathan.
"Why is it up to anyone?"
When Ava asks Caleb about what will happen to her if she does not pass the Turing Test, he tells her that it is not up to him. She replies by asking this question, which raises legitimate ethical questions about creation and destruction. She wonders why anyone has the right to deprogram (essentially, to kill) her, and why she should not have a say in her own existence, since she is a perceivably conscious being.
"Did you program her to like me, or not?"
Early in the film, when Ava and Caleb first begin flirting, Caleb asks Nathan directly whether Ava is doing so spontaneously or if she has been programmed to do so. He wants to know if the beautiful A.I. actually feels attraction towards him, or if it is just something she has been programmed to do.
"Did you design Ava's face based on my pornography profile?"
Towards the end of the film, when Caleb comes to the realization that he has just been a pawn in Nathan's research experiment, he realizes that one reason he is so enticed by Ava is that she has been constructed in relation to Caleb's porn search history. This is a moment of betrayal, in which Caleb realizes that Nathan has set everything up to manipulate him.
