WARNING: This Article May Contain Spoilers
I felt this article, even though I have had it planned for a while, was apt to be released now as there has recently been an actual think-tank regarding whether AI would be beneficial or if it poses a threat in the future. You’d think it already did the way some people react towards self-scans in supermarkets…
2001: A Space Odyssey
I feel like I watched the opening of this film with an absolutely dumbfounded look on my face because I could not for the life of me figure out the relation the dawn of man would have to the rest of the film. What is beautiful however is that there’s no speech until about 25 minutes into the film. On to H.A.L – the AI in question – about an hour into the film (for those of you who get bored easily please stick with) and as the time goes on, he’s polite tone begins to feel a little more sinister. Part of me wondered if he had malfunctioned from the beginning but then thought about the interview earlier in the film when they’re asked if he has genuine feelings. This then made me think to myself that what H.A.L does to the crew is actually because his feelings got hurt!
Margaux
If you ever wanted a film that starts off with bang…this is the one! I mean the guy’s head explodes (what more could you want)! There’s been so many films about possessed houses, a craze started by Amityville I would say, so murder house run by an AI is definitely refreshing. Annoyingly from the beginning I wanted Lexi dead first and had a feeling how Margaux was going to be defeated. Unfortunately I was half right, Lexi dies much later and the predictable conclusion kind of ruined how good the film was panning out to be. Especially as the whole reason Margaux is doing what she is doing is to be more human.
M3GAN
Is it fair to say that M3GAN’s AI goes wrong for a good reason? The reason she becomes violent is to protect Cady from harm, exactly what she has been asked to do. OK, there’s also the possibility that Dewey the dog short circuited part of her engineering as well but truthfully everything she does she does for Cady. Well at least that’s how it starts anyway.
Resident Evil
So, me adding this to this article caused a minor discussion in my household about whether the Red Queen goes off the cliff or not. It isn’t clear whether she is actually programmed to kill in order to protect the experimentation taking place in the hive or not so it does make you wonder – they describe her as turning homicidal for an unknown reason. The other question you ask is, is she trying to protect the experimentations or herself? On the other hand, the Red Queen does also try to warn them. She tells them to not turn the power off…
Blade Runner
I think it’s pretty apt using this film at the moment as I’m reading Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K Dick, on which this film is based. Now this whole premise really depends on if you consider androids as running on AI but they do talk about the Nexus-6 model adapting to fit in, which AI can do. They mention right at the beginning that the Replicants are made illegal on earth following an off-world incident but I always wonder who is to blame in these situations – the AI or those who created them. The other question is, are all the Replicants we meet in the film bad? Or are Pris and Zhora following Roy’s lead? Especially as two of them are created for murder and combat – would what they do in the colony not be natural to them? I also want to point out that Roy actually refers to what he has done as ‘awful things’ when talking with Tyrell. Now would an AI that’s gone wrong see it that way?
I, Robot
So I’m not a Will Smith fan but I actually think this is one of his better films. The majority of this film is based around Spooner’s preconceptions of the robots in the city based on a single incident. Now that’s not to say that there is not a bad AI in the film because, like Margaux, there clearly is in V.I.K.I. however this is buried in the story of Sunny who is only trying to find out who or what he is instead of doing bad things. Also, it is revealed at the end that Sunny is still abiding by the laws of robotics when he kills the Doctor because he was asked to do so.
