We at Sentient Machines often talk about how we like to use artificial intelligence (AI) to help people. Our leading-edge AI platform reads and tracks intent, language, and emotion throughout customer interactions – basically, what is being said and why it is being said. And usually, we use our blogs to show everyone the benefits of using AI.
Today, however, we thought we would do something a little different; using movie villains to illustrate how AI can go wrong.
AI has been a popular subject in sci-fi movies for decades, with artificial intelligence portrayed as both friend and foe on the silver screen, with its darker side giving audiences some of cinema's most iconic villains, with many of these films depicting a world where people have taken technology too far and explore the devastating consequences of manmade sentience. Many of these movies take a more nuanced approach to the topic, often portraying the villains as misunderstood victims of humanity's greed.
So, with all this in mind, let's look at cinema's top 5 AI supervillains.
5. Ultron in The Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
One of the most recent AI supervillains comes in the robotic form of Ultron. Originally designed to be a part of a peacekeeping program created by the acerbic Tony Stark and his bad-tempered friend Bruce Banner, Ultron went rogue, deeming humanity the greatest threat to peace on Earth and attempted to commit extinction-level genocide against them.
The overarching theme of the Avengers sequel is this fictional conflict between biological beings and artificial intelligence. But how fictional is it? Is AI like Ultron possible?
While we are a long way from "Artificial General Intelligence", which, contrarily from what is out there today, can think, feel, and reason as much as us humans do, Ultron embodies the "What Doesn't Kill Me Makes Me Stronger" ethos, which perfectly sums up AI and machine learning pretty nicely.
4. Agent Smith and the Agents in The Matrix Quadrillogy (1999-2021)
Agent Smith, played superbly by the terrifying Hugo Weaving, has become one of cinema's most iconic villains. With their CIA attire, dark sunglasses, and inhuman blandness, the Agents were AI characters whose singular purpose was to stop humans from discovering the truth about the reality of their universe.
The original trilogy pit man against machine in a clearly drawn battle while also exposing humans as more machine-like than perhaps first thought and that machines are capable of possessing human qualities as well. Humans, for their part, are depicted as relentlessly driven as machines. Morpheus's faith in the Oracle's prophecy is unwavering, and his own followers follow him automatically. Trinity's loyalty to Neo has machine-like consistency. While Keanu Reeves' Neo exudes an almost robotic calm, and both he and Carrie-Anne Moss wear sleek, androgynous clothes. The Agents, by contrast, are fluid, adaptive, and creative, and Agent Smith infuses his dialogue with human emotions such as anger and disgust.
With the line between man and machine blurred to the point of being almost non-existent, the Matrix trilogy raises the complicated question of how interdependent man and machine really are.
3. The Terminator in The Terminator Franchise (1984-2019)
"I'll be back", "Come with me if you want to live", "hasta la vista, baby". The Terminator has some of the most memorable lines and is renowned as the film that kickstarted then-weightlifter Arnold Schwarzenegger's career; it is also one of the quintessential 80s movies. In addition to the blaring neon lighting and eye-gouging fashion, it is one of the best summations of the decade's anxieties about computers and nuclear war.
The 80s was the first-time computers became visible in most people's lives. Businesses began replacing paper filing systems with digital ones, typewriters were swapped out for Amigas, and home computers suddenly became affordable. This theme of the intrusion of technology into everyday life is embodied in the plot of The Terminator. The movie is literally about a woman whose normal, unremarkable life in L.A. is interrupted by a computer sending a robot to kill her.
The film's particular brand of paranoia is called "technophobia," the fear of advanced technology. And who wouldn't be afraid of the Terminator? Unlike most other AI villains, the form of this one came not in a slim figure of the Agents from the Matrix, but the much larger, much more formidable T-800. The purpose of the AI in The Terminator is to kill Sarah Conner and, in the subsequent sequels, her son, John Conner.
The story tells of a world where humanity has lost control of the very tools it created to make its world a safer, more vibrant place. The machines have taken over and can blend seamlessly into human society, making it difficult to tell the difference between the man and the machine.
2. Replicants in Blade Runner (1982) & Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
Blade Runner may feature the greatest number of AIs and might ask the most profound questions about what it means to be an AI. The film takes place in an imagined 2019, and though it may have overshot the mark in some of its technical details (we don't have any flying cars just yet), it could not be sharper with respect to the anxieties that define our age.
Sir Ridley Scott, the director of the masterpiece, imagines a world controlled by a few large corporations that have become enormously profitable through the development of intelligent machines. These humanoid robots, known as "replicants," are effectively enslaved and used for hard labour on distant planets. Despite their enslavement, there is a pervasive fear that they will infiltrate other areas of human life. The film tells the story of Deckard, a so-called "blade runner" charged with hunting down a group of replicants who escaped from an off-world colony. Deckard disdains replicants, but in his pursuit, he unwittingly falls in love with one and confronts the possibility that he might be a replicant himself.
Blade Runner raises the challenging philosophical question of whether a constructed being can, or should, be considered a person.
1. Hal in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
2001 is a renowned classic, often ranked as one of the greatest films ever made and inspired the likes of Christopher Nolan, James Cameron, Danny Boyle, and Steven Spielberg. Although depending on your personal preferences, this Stanley Kubrick film is either a work of complete genius or a pretentious, incoherent mess. There is no dispute that it significantly impacted cinema and is one of the earliest films to depict artificial intelligence.
Aboard the spaceship Discovery One, only the supercomputer HAL 9000 has been informed of the purpose of the mission. Widely considered to be infallible, HAL makes an error, which it refuses to accept, dismissing the mistake as "human error". In principle, humans are the computer's designers, but, if it is to be believed, could it be the computer itself? Adopting this line of reasoning, the machine gives itself a status that crew members could not imagine – that of a living being.
To surmise, 2001: A Space Odyssey explores technological innovation, its possibilities, and its perils. Hal presents the problems that can arise when mankind creates machines whose inner workings they cannot fully comprehend.
It’s just a movie, right?
While we may be a long way from cyborgs travelling through time and taking over the world, AI poses some significant challenges for the human race – one that we all need to be conscious of.
AI can be a tool for good in the world – or it can be a tool for bad. For instance, at Sentient Machines, we use AI to help customers and businesses understand each other and communicate better. We believe that artificial intelligence brings many benefits and opportunities for people, but we must be careful and use these tools correctly.
Written by Minul de Alwis