GUEST EDITORIAL: 6 Mind-Bending Movies About Artificial Intelligence

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6 Mind-Bending Movies About Artificial Intelligence

by Lewis Robinson

Artificial intelligence has become highly important in today's world. Because of this, a lot of movies have been made about the topic. If this interests you, here are six mind-bending movies about artificial intelligence.

1. 2001: A Space Odyssey

2001: A Space Odyssey is probably the most well-known movie about artificial intelligence. This isn't because it provides a deep dive into the mindset of AI. Instead, it uses AI to depict on of the most terrifying villains ever made. Hal is the artificial intelligence that runs the characters' ship. Since the robot's main objective is to fulfill the characters' mission, he will stop at nothing to do so. Unfortunately, this results in the deaths of multiple crewmembers. While this may not portray AI in an appealing light, it will leave you wondering how things like wafer scale integration work.

2. Blade Runner

Blade Runner, starring Harrison Ford, is an interesting film about the differences between AI and humans. It's hard to tell the two apart in this universe. The film also allows the audience to feel pity for artificial intelligence, even the ones that are killing people. In fact, a majority of the ending is spent on hearing the antagonist monologue about his memories. By the credits, the audience legitimately feels sad that each memory will be lost. 

3. A.I.: Artificial Intelligence

A.I., like many films on this list, is a movie that explores the potential emotions of artificial intelligence. However, this flick does it from the point of view of a child. This change makes all the difference in how the audience views AI. Although the main character has difficulties fitting in, he still clearly has feelings and dreams. Because of this, the movie can get extremely sad at times. On the other hand, it's made clear that our main character is one of a kind. While there are many other robots in the movie, none portray as much emotion as the child. This results in a film that leaves us both scared of and sympathetic to AI.

4. Ex Machina

Ex Machina, similar to 2001, is not a film to watch if you want to sympathize with AI. Sure, most of the film follows a man trying to save a female robot. However, it turns out that he was just being used. She never truly cared for him or even felt fear. This realization, along with other emotionless bots in the movie, mainly serves to inspire fear of artificial intelligence. It's also important to note that there's a lot of moments which portray the uncanny. For instance, there's an odd dance scene that comes out of nowhere. Since artificial intelligence bots are often uncanny, this added element only serves to further the audience's discomfort towards AI.

5. WALL-E

WALL-E is, undeniably, one of the best children's films ever made. It's also a film that depicts an eerily realistic future. Earth is uninhabitable, humans have become entirely machine-reliant and artificial intelligence is used to clean up the planet. While the movie may prescribe some unrealistic emotions to the robots, it seems possible that enough active time could allow bots to feel. The entire first half of the film causes the audience to fall in love with WALL-E, a bot that is seemingly cleaning the Earth by himself. While no words are said, simply seeing the bot go through his day creates empathy within the audience. If you're looking for a charming film about AI, this is the one to pick.

6. Westworld

Ever since the HBO show came out, Westworld has become highly popular. Similar to the show, the movie portrays a Western theme park filled with AI. Unlike the show, it doesn't grapple with the ethics of using AI this way. Instead, the robots are portrayed as the film's villains, particularly when the bots begin to malfunction. Because of this, the film feels more like a horror flick than an analysis of AI. However, it's definitely worth watching if you want to see AI in action.

If you're interested in artificial intelligence, you should definitely check out these films. Sit back and enjoy learning about this futuristic technology.