As AI takes over the world in the metaphorical sense — for now, at least — it’s the perfect time to turn to the movies and TV shows that have shown AI actually taking over the world, and more. From “Avengers: Age of Ultron” to “Westworld” to various iterations of “Star Trek,” AI has shown a robust presence in popular culture over the past two generations. Here’s a selection of films that have depicted AI over the years — and what they’ve said about the world in the process.
___ ‘The Terminator’ As James Cameron said recently, “I warned you guys in 1984 and you didn’t listen.” Cameron’s dystopic science fiction – particularly his 1984 original and its 1991 sequel, both with Arnold Schwarzenegger — imagined a future world where a military computer system named Skynet grows sentient and, after humans try to “pull the plug,” starts a nuclear holocaust. “They say it got smart,” John Connor’s father says in the original film. Ever since, “The Terminator” has loomed as perhaps the preeminent cinematic vision of a world leading inevitably to AI rule: the prophecy of Arnold.
‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ If AI has a voice, it’s HAL 9000’s. Stanley Kubrick’s colossal 1968 masterwork envisioned a human history in which the creation of tools, from ape bludgeon to gleaming space station, has evolutionary consequences. HAL, the red-eyed antagonist voiced with disquieting calm by Douglas Rain, was technically a child.
(It tells the astronaut Dave that it’s 9-years-old.) HAL can easily win at chess and read lips. But much of what HAL is up to remains hidden behind its opaque machine exterior; in deep space, it begins maliciously eliminating the astronauts. Maybe HAL would have gotten along better with Siri or Alexa.
‘WALL-E’ For a kids movie, the future offered up by “WALL-E” (2008) is remarkably haunting. A lazy human race locked to their screens and stuck in their La-Z-Boys. All thinking passed on to computers.
On the cruise ship onto which all humanity has fled, a very HAL-like AI named AUTO has been handed all power to steer their course. Thankfully, life – and love – blooms again on Earth. ‘War Games’ Not all movie AIs are all bad.
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