Probing the ethical implications surrounding the use of AI, Franklin Ritch's debut feature hinges on a high-concept premise: an entirely digital avatar of a young girl named Cherry (Tatum Matthews) is used as bait to trap paedophiles in online chatrooms. Without the signature spectacle of the sci-fi genre, The Artifice Girl is a markedly low-key and small-scale endeavour, steeped in philosophical musings that ultimately seem stagey rather than cinematic. It starts in a police interrogation room where Ritch's Gareth, Cherry's creator, is questioned by Deena (Sinda Nichols) and Amos (David Girard), members of a taskforce combatting child sexual abuse. Once Gareth reveals Cherry is a virtual being, concerns arise as to whether she can meaningfully consent to interacting with men on a daily basis. As Cherry grows increasingly sentient, the same talking points are reiterated in the second section of the film, as Gareth advocates to transfer Cherry's intelligence into a physical form.