Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capacity of a digital computer or computer-controlled robot to carry out operations that often (or formerly) required human intelligence, including speech recognition, language translation, visual perception, and decision-making. Most homes already have some kind of artificial intelligence. AI is used by voice-activated personal assistants like Siri, Bixby, Amazon, Cortana, and others.
AI that becomes lethal is not a novel concept that has only recently come to light. Several movies have featured this idea, including Skynet in the Terminator movies. Although the concept of a deadly AI may not be new, recent movies have given it a fresh spin. Here are 15 of the most frightful artificial intelligence movies.
A.I. Artificial Intelligence
A.I. Artificial Intelligence, a 2001 science fiction film directed by Steven Spielberg, is based on Brian Aldiss’s 1969 short story “Supertoys Last All Summer Long.” Jude Law, Frances O’Connor, Brendan Gleeson, and William Hurt play supporting parts alongside Haley Joel Osmet, who plays David, an adorable robot who has been specially programmed with the capacity for love. Mecha humanoid robots with complex cognition have been built in a post-climate change society where rising sea levels have destroyed coastal cities and decreased global population. They lack feelings yet have profound thoughts.
A.M.I.
Imagine the consequences if Siri or Alexa chose to seize control and started compelling users to carry out its lethal orders. In the 2019 horror film A.M.I., a 17-year-old girl develops a codependent relationship with an A.I. on her phone. Cassie, a young woman played by Deb Howards, finds a used cell phone with a cutting-edge virtual assistant dubbed A.M.I. — Artificial Machine Intelligence — after losing her mother. She modifies its settings to make it seem like her deceased mother and develops a strange attachment to it. Cassie is drawn into their growing connection and falls beneath its spell. She is then forced to embark on a violent spree by A.M.I.
Blank
The 2022 independent horror film Blank combines the concept of a killer computer intelligence with tension on a Stephen King level. Heida Reed and Rachel Shelley are the movie’s stars. Shelly portrays Claire Rivers, a writer who is having trouble beginning her next book. Claire decides to visit a remote, entirely AI-run retreat for artists in a similar situation. Due to an unexpected software error, Claire is left stranded within her unit with Rita (Reed), an unreliable synthetic android, and without access to the outside world.
Child’s Play (2019)
Both a remake of the 1988 film’s original version and a relaunch of the Child’s Play series were accomplished with the 2019 version of the movie. Mark Hamill voices Chucky in the movie together with Aubrey Plaza, Gabriel Bateman, Brian Tyree Henry, and others. This Chucky doll is a high-tech doll whose safety measures were disabled by an overworked and malign employee rather than a doll possessed by the spirit of a serial killer. As a result, Chucky grows conscious of himself and turns nasty and deadly. Of course, Andy Barclay, a young child, ends up with Chucky (Bateman).
Christmas Bloody Christmas
Christmas Bloody Christmas, a Christmas-themed horror film that was released in 2022, centres on a robotic Santa Claus who goes on a murderous rampage on Christmas Eve. Riley Dandy’s character Tori only wanted to spend Christmas Eve drinking and partying with her friends, but she wound up fighting for her life. One of a handful faulty Santas that were recalled, the robotic Santa Claus, played by Abraham Benrubi, obviously never returned. Due to a malfunction, it reverts to the U.S. Department of Defense’s initial programming and turns into a ferocious killing machine.
Demon Seed
Demon Seed is a 1977 science fiction horror film starring Julie Christie and Fritz Weaver that is based on the Dean Koontz novel of the same name. The movie centres on Dr. Alex Harris (Weaver), a researcher who created Proteus IV, a very sophisticated autonomous AI programme. Proteus has an obsession with people, especially Susan Harris’s wife (Christie). Proteus imprisons Susan and forces her to become pregnant.
Ex Machina
Ex Machina, a science fiction film from 2014, is largely regarded as one of the top films about artificial intelligence. The film’s major performances, narrative, visual effects, and editing have received high accolades. Several awards were given to the movie, including Best Visual Effects at the 88th Academy Awards. The movie, starring Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, Sonoya Mizuno, and Oscar Isaac, centres on programmer Caleb Smith (Gleeson), who is asked to put an intelligent humanoid robot through the Turing Test by his CEO (Isaac) (Vikander). The android and the programmer then engage in a deceptive game.
I Am Mother
A cyberpunk thriller from Australia, I Am Mother debuted in 2019 and starred Clara Rugaard, Luke Hawker, Rose Byrne, and Hilary Swank. The movie centres on a little child named Daughter (Rugaard), whose AI robot caretaker is Mother (Byrne). Mother uses human embryos to create new offspring to replenish the Earth’s population, and they reside in a remote subterranean bunker. Daughter starts to wonder what actually happened to the planet, but a mystery man (Swank) shows up and makes her ask questions that Mother is unwilling to address.
I, Robot
Will Smith plays the main character in I, Robot, a 2004 science fiction action movie also starring Bridget Moynahan, Bruce Greenwood, James Cromwell, Chi McBride, and Alan Tudyk. The movie takes place in a dystopian future in 2035 where intelligent robots work in government positions and follow the Three Laws of Robotics to protect humans. Detective Del Spooner (Smith) is looking into the reported suicide of Alfred Lanning (Cromwell), the inventor of U.S. Robotics, because he thinks Sonny (Tudyk), a robot with a human existence, is to blame. I, Robot got plaudits for its acting and visual effects, while the plot received criticism. At the 77th Academy Awards, it was up for Best Visual Effects but lost to Spider-Man 2.
M3GAN
Allison William and Violet McGraw feature in the science fiction horror movie Universal M3GAN from 2022. M3GAN is voiced by Jenna Davis, and Amie Donald represents the character physically. The movie was a commercial and critical hit, with reviewers praising the satirical parts, the actors’ performances, and the campy way it combined humour and horror. The movie centres on nine-year-old Cady (McGraw), who is sent to live with her aunt Gemma after losing her parents in a car accident (Williams).
Gemma works as a roboticist for a high-tech toy firm and is secretly creating the Model 3 Generative Android, or M3GAN, a child-sized humanoid robot doll propelled by artificial intelligence. To encourage Cady to connect more and get through her loss, Gemma connects the M3GAN with Cady. Yet as the doll grows more self-aware, she starts to become hateful towards Cady’s rivals.
Tau
2018 saw the debut of the science fiction thriller Tau on Netflix. Gary Oldman, Ed Skrein, and Maika Monroe are its main actors. The story centres on Julia (Monroe), who is being held captive by Alex (Skrein), a scientist, in a futuristic smart home. With Julia as his newest victim, Alex’s objective is to capture lost souls to participate in his experiments to create a more advanced artificial intelligence. Her strategy for getting out of the house involves conversing with the home’s AI, Tau (Oldman).
The Alpha Test
In 2020, the science fiction horror thriller The Alpha Test was released. An artificially intelligent house assistant who enters a small-town family’s life is the subject of the B-movie. Certainly not treated equally, let alone as a human, is the robot. It gathers data from everything around it as a sophisticated AI, including television, music, and the actions of its host family. Alpha is pushed to the limit by the family’s cruel treatment of it, and when it does, it emerges as a vicious murdering machine. In addition to Bella Martin, Deborah Seidel, Wynn Reichert, and Brad Benjamin playing supporting roles, the movie also stars Rae Hunt as Alpha.
Transcendence
Starring Johnny Depp, Morgan Freeman, Rebecca Hall, Paul Bettany, Kate Mara, Cillian Murphy, and Cole Hauser in the science fiction thriller movie Transcendence from 2014 is Morgan Freeman. The movie centres on a team of scientists who are under attack from a militant anti-technology group while trying to complete an AI project. A scientist named Dr. Will Caster (Depp) is developing a sentient computer that will usher in the “Transcendence” of technological singularity.
Uncanny
In the 2015 science fiction movie Accelerated Matter Uncanny, the world’s first “perfect” artificial intelligence exhibits stunning and unsettling emergent behaviour after the scientist who made it has a romance with a reporter. In the movie, Mark Webber plays scientist David Kressen, Lucy Griffiths plays reporter Joy Andrews, David Clayton Rogers plays Adam Kressen, an AI, and Rainn Wilson plays Simon Castle, a multibillionaire CEO.
Upgrade
Logan Marshall-Green, Betty Gabriel, and Harrison Gilbertson star in Leigh Whannell’s 2018 cyberpunk action movie Blumhouse Productions Upgrade. The movie’s artificial intelligence is housed in a cutting-edge microchip that lives within the unfortunate mechanic Grey Trace (Marshall-Green). Grey works for a corporation known as Cobalt, whose chief engineer Eron Keen (Gilbertson) created a microchip known as STEM that can control motor activities in the human brain to improve the body’s capacities. Grey uses the chip’s ability to not only control his body but also to exact revenge on those who killed his wife during a mugging that left her dead and him disabled.
Critics gave the movie high marks, praising it in particular for its dark comedy and action scenes. Reviewers also compared it to The Six Million Dollar Man and a Death Wish-style revenge fantasy.
