What felt futuristic and imaginative in Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 classic 2001: A Space Odyssey and again in the Terminator franchise now hits a little too close to home. What felt like a metaphor in The Matrix now feels like those 90’s thrillers whose power was rooted in the nagging voice in the back of your mind saying, “This could really happen.”
Of course, we’re talking about the dangers of artificial intelligence. This premise found itself in the mainstream with movies like Avengers: Age of Ultron and iRobot.
Even the last two installments of the Mission: Impossible franchise were based on an artificially intelligent villain simply called The Entity.
However, there are plenty more films that allow us to see some pretty dire consequences when we take technology too far.
Here a six thrillers based on the dangers of AI!
Eagle Eye
2008’s Eagle Eye starring Shia LaBeouf and Michelle Monaghan really took our paranoia about cell phones, the internet, and “big brother” and used them against us.
The artificial intelligence in this film is scary because it’s using all the technology that exists today, technology we bring in our homes and give to our kids. It is also ominous because, unlike many of the titles below, we don’t know what humans, if any, are behind it.
This is a deeply flawed movie in many ways, but its frenetic pace and cool villain make it a fun watch.
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Logan Marshall-Green gives an incredible performance as the old school guy in a futuristic world who likes to work with his hands. He’s skeptical of tech, and even more so of artificial intelligence.
Marshall-Green lives all of our worst nightmares when an attack leaves him paralyzed, and he’s given a new lease on life via an artificially intelligent black market chip implanted by a scientist.
This chip doesn’t just allow him to walk again. When allowed to take “full control,” it greatly enhances Marshall-Green’s physical capabilities.
This turns out to be a great metaphor for the use of AI in our lives. It allows him to get what he wants, to find who killed his wife and exact revenge, but at great cost.
Allowing AI to run our lives—order our groceries, create art, run businesses, and so many other things—seems great on the surface. But what is the price?
M3gan & Companion
I lumped these two together because they make a great double feature. Both center around human beings using tangible yet artificially intelligent beings to fill deeply human needs.
In M3gan, that need is friendship. In Companion, it’s romance, sex, and intimacy.
However, they also stand in stark contrast to one another.
M3gan features an idealist, played by Allison Williams, who is trying to make AI bots for good reasons. She gifts the robot to her niece after she loses her parents.
In Companion, Jack Quaid buys his robot as a way to fulfill greedy desires and stroke his ego.
In both films, the AI goes rogue and puts people in jeopardy. This is a pretty telling lesson about the dangers of artificial intelligence: Pure intentions will not save us.
Ex Machina
Alex Garland’s masterpiece, Ex Machina, is the perfect counter-programming to the rest of the titles on this list. While the artificial intelligence does go rogue, just like in Companion, the human (Oscar Isaac) involved is so sleazy and unlikable that it becomes less clear who the viewer should root for.
The film uses Domhnall Gleason’s character to try and humanize Ava, played excellently by Alicia Vikander.
Ex Machina’s magic lies in its intentions. Unlike the other movies which are pretty clearly warnings, this one aims to cast doubt.
It puts AI usage in a moral gray area.
Stepford Wives (1975)
Stepford Wives is included here because it perfectly depicts how culpable we are, or will be, in our own demise at the hands of artificial intelligence. It is a great film that shows just how far humans will go to make our lives easier, more enjoyable, or better in some way.
Stepford Wives operates on a level of debauchery on par with the first season of Westworld.
This film tackles misogyny by using AI as the vehicle with which the message is delivered. The reason this film is so unsettling is that it shows how easily and powerfully artificial intelligence will enable us to follow our baser instincts.
In a world where people are already doing so, it’s terrifying to imagine how much worse it can get when artificial intelligence is involved.
These films only begin to scratch the surface of how dangerous artificial intelligence can be. They focus on the horrors of AI turning on us and directly harming humankind, or they show us how much AI can aid us in harming one another.
However, in the near future, it is easy to imagine us getting more films that address climate change and other indirect consequences of artificial intelligence.
