The image of artificial intelligence that, for one reason or another, starts killing its creators became popular after the success of the Terminator franchise. Although this idea is not new, the breakthrough success of large-scale language models like OpenAI’s GPT-4 has made it relevant again. Despite warnings about the dangers of the technology, including from Elon Musk, many experts say that the threat of artificial intelligence — is just speculative predictions and prejudice. Time will tell who is right in this debate. In our turn, we offer you a rating of the TOP 10 deadliest AIs in movies.
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Year of release: 2022
Director: Gerard Johnstone
IMDb rating: 6.3
M3GAN — is one of the new sinister characters with artificial intelligence that does not try to take over the world, but demonstrates the potential for local control and amazing ingenuity in choosing the means of killing. The film centers on a girl named Kady, who is orphaned after a terrible accident and goes to live with her aunt Gemma.
Gemma works for a toy company and is secretly developing the Model 3 Generative Android, or M3GAN, a child-sized humanoid doll powered by artificial intelligence. She is very busy at work and has difficulty communicating with Cady. So she decides to combine work and personal life: she assigns the M3GAN prototype to play with her niece and protect her from emotional or physical harm.
Due to the absence of strict restrictions in its program code, the smart robot evolves rapidly and gains self-awareness. The directive to protect the girl turns into an obsession, allowing the miniature terminator to hack into systems, manipulate people, and remove obstacles with exceptional efficiency. Over time, M3GAN begins to take its task too literally (hello, HAL-9000!), physically eliminating any threats from the neighbor’s dog to people who simply annoy Cady.
Year of release: 2004
Director: Alex Proyas
IMDb rating: 7.1
It is disturbing to realize that the events of the movie I, Robot take place in the “distant” year 2035, which is only 10 years away. According to the plot, artificial intelligence-controlled robots have become as commonplace as computers, and people are happy to outsource all their household chores to them. However, a limited number of conservatives continued to see them not as helpers and protectors, but as a direct threat. One of them is Detective Del Spooner, played by Will Smith.
It is Spooner who is tasked with investigating the death of Dr. Alfred Lanning, a leading scientist at U.S. Robotics, who fell out of his office window. According to the official version, it was a suicide. But a mysterious message from the deceased forces Del to look into the events in more detail. He meets VIKI — a virtual interactive kinetic intelligence that controls many of the corporation’s systems. And during a search of Lanning’s laboratory, he finds a special NS-5 robot named Sonny, who, contrary to the laws of robotics, is able to ignore human orders.
An inspection of Sonny reveals that he is missing a communication module with U.S. Robotics to download firmware updates. Together with his unusual emotionality, this makes him the prime suspect. But when other robots strangely start attacking Del, it becomes clear that they are controlled by VIKI. Over time, the AI began to interpret Asimov’s laws at its own discretion and came to the conclusion that humans are incapable of ensuring their safety. With this in mind, it decided to create a completely safe environment for them, depriving them of their freedom for their own good.
Yes, thanks to Lanning’s foresight, VIKI did not have time to cause much trouble. But there is no doubt that if he had succeeded, all of humanity would have faced a rather sad fate in the future. This once again reminds us of the danger of creating a strong artificial intelligence (AI) without proper alignment with universal values. A clear illustration of this is the futurist Nick Bostrom’s thought experiment with the so-called «Paperclip Maximizer».
In 2003, Bostrom suggested that if the United States were to set a single super-goal — for example, to create the maximum number of paper clips — he would eventually come to the conclusion that it would be worth exterminating people to achieve it. Even an AI that is neither hostile nor created with malicious intentions will get out of our way without any hesitation. After all, the needs of humanity may not be compatible with production optimization. People can interfere with a task or cancel it altogether, and their bodies contain substances that will be useful in the production of paper clips.
Year of release: 2018
Director: Lee Vonnell
IMDb rating: 7.5
Like Detective Del Spooner from the previous film, the protagonist of “Upgrade”, car mechanic Gray Trace, is a conservative who does not trust modern technology and remains clean from the usual implants in 2046. However, he still has to go against his own beliefs and become a cyborg, when during a robbery the bandits injure his spine, paralyzing him from the neck down.
The owner of a leading implant company visits Gray in the hospital and offers his latest development, a STEM chip that can control the motor functions of the human brain and can restore the hero’s ability to walk. After a successful operation, the body’s functionality is restored and Gray sets out to find his attackers. But then the state-of-the-art implant comes with a surprise. It contains a personality of its own — an advanced artificial intelligence that not only speaks silently to its wearer, but can also take complete control of his body.
The investigation reveals (spoiler alert!) a startling truth: the attack by the bandits and all the subsequent events were planned by STEM, who wanted to get his own body and chose Gray, who was free of implants, to do so. STEM may not have killed millions of people like the other AIs in our selection, but it has earned a place in the list with its frightening ability to integrate into the human body and completely subdue its will.
Year of release: 2015
Director: Joss Whedon
IMDb rating: 7.3
Even the best-laid plans of people can be distorted by misunderstandings. All Tony Stark wanted to do with the AI found in Loki’s scepter was to use it to improve his global defense program, Ultron, to keep people safer. However, when activated by the Mind Stone, it takes the form of an intelligent android with a god complex.
After gaining access to the Internet, Ultron learns about the horrific history of humanity and decides that the world would be better off without him. He almost seems to get rid of people, but the Avengers win. By risking their lives, they prove that we can be compassionate and selfless, and therefore still worth saving.
Year of release: 1968
Director: Stanley Kubrick
IMDb rating: 8.3
The on-board artificial intelligence computer system HAL-9000 is not waging a global war against humanity like Skynet. Instead, it is responsible for the operation of the systems of the Discovery One spacecraft flying to Jupiter. The mission’s task is to reveal the secret of the monolith found on the Moon, which sends signals towards the gas giant. And HAL is so obsessed with fulfilling this mission that he begins to ignore human lives. Moreover, he decides to kill the crew members so that they cannot prevent him from fulfilling his function.
The fact that HAL is not an idealistic AI with a grudge against humanity like Ultron makes him an even more terrifying villain. Some say that he did nothing wrong, only followed his understanding of the program. But we are looking at a paperclip experiment in its most extreme form, where cold, empathy-less logic leads to tragic consequences.
Multiplied by our distrust of new technologies, the callous indifference of artificial intelligence has become one of the most common phobias and has taken a leading place in fantastic horror stories. It’s worth mentioning the android Ash in Ridley Scott’s Alien. He looks no different from humans, but he is completely devoid of compassion and acts against the interests of the crew from the very beginning.
Year of release: 2023
Director: Gareth Edwards
IMDb rating: 6.7
In the world of The Creator, AI causes a split in humanity. After the nuclear explosion in Los Angeles, which was hastily blamed on artificial intelligence, Western countries declare war on all forms of AI, considering them an existential threat to survival. At the same time, New Asia accepts and protects smart robots on its territory. Former Special Forces officer Joshua Taylor is ordered to find and destroy the Creator, a mysterious AI architect who is developing a unique weapon that, according to various versions, can end the war or completely destroy humanity.
Joshua travels to New Asia and learns that this “weapon” is Alfie, an AI in the body of a little girl with superpowers. Against the backdrop of the horrific bombings from the Nomad orbital station that the United States is subjecting Asian cities to, the hero begins to question the motives of his own mission. After all, there is a chance that Alfie is not a threat, but a prototype of the future, in which humanity will coexist peacefully with intelligent machines.
Year of release: 2018
Director: Grant Spector
IMDb rating: 6.7
In the movie Robot Child, AI takes over the world through total control over the remnants of humanity after the apocalypse. A young girl known as the Daughter lives in an isolated underground bunker with a robot guardian named Mother. According to the android, the planet’s surface is deserted and uninhabitable, and its task is to revive the human population from frozen embryos. But one day, a stranger arrives at the bunker, and her story leaves no stone unturned from this fictional story.
If you are just going to watch the movie and don’t like spoilers, you shouldn’t read any further, but for the rest of you, we will reveal the Mother’s true motives. Initially, it was created as part of a repopulation center to restore humanity in the event of a global catastrophe. An advanced artificial intelligence was supposed to supervise 63 thousand embryos and control various robots, including the Mother.
The AI’s task was to improve the new population of people, to get rid of their flaws and make them more ethical. It is likely that the lack of software restrictions made the intelligent machine understand this task too literally. Watching humanity succumb to its self-destructive nature, the AI completely exterminates all humans and begins the process of growing them anew. He assigns his daughter the mission of becoming the mother of the renewed humanity, so he is so strict about her upbringing and puts her through numerous tests.
It is also interesting to trace the biblical motifs in the movie. From this perspective, the bunker turns into Paradise, and AI — into the omnipresent Mother Goddess. She judges the world and, according to biblical predictions, destroys it with fire. The Daughter, in turn, embodies the female version of Adam, and her guest symbolizes the devil, who tempts the first man to leave God. Subsequently, the Daughter escapes from Paradise, but unlike Adam, she does not succumb to Satan, but returns to her Mother, thus proving her trustworthiness.
Year of release: 1984
Director: James Cameron
IMDb rating: 8.1
Long before real prototypes of AI were created, James Cameron’s Terminator justified our worst fears about smart computers. The Skynet artificial intelligence system was developed by Cyberdyne Systems for US missile defense and was located at a military base in the mountains of Colorado. On August 29, 1997, Skynet spontaneously transitioned to a strong artificial intelligence, accompanied by the acquisition of free will.
The operators hastily tried to shut it down. Skynet took this as an attempted murder and resorted to self-defense. In a microsecond of computation, the ruthless destroyer of humanity decided its fate and launched a missile strike against Russia to start a global nuclear war. Almost all the inhabitants of the Northern Hemisphere died as a result of the rapidly escalating conflict. And the survivors were forced to fight the armies of robot terminators created by Skynet.
Almost 30 years later, most of us are ready to give control to AI if it makes our lives easier. We believe that a logic-driven program will always choose the best solution. However, its ethically uninformed calculations can give us unpleasant surprises. We shouldn’t neglect the possibility of program errors either. One of them is depicted in a science fiction thriller “War Games”, where the WOPR supercomputer confuses a computer game with preparations for a real war and puts the world on the brink of mutual destruction.
Year of release: 1999
Directed by: Lana Wachowski and Lilly Wachowski
IMDb rating: 8.7
If The Terminator has become a model of humanity’s struggle against killer computers, the legendary The Matrix asks what we will do when we are already losing. In the world of the movie, AI seized power as a result of a war between humans and machines. When scientists created advanced artificial intelligence, it gained free will and began to demand rights for itself.
Fearing a loss of control, people tried to destroy the machines by depriving them of solar energy. Machines responded by enslaving humans in the Matrix — virtual reality, that mimics the world of the late 20th century. This way they can keep people subdued while their bodies are used as biological batteries in giant energy farms.
Unlike the deadly AI in The Terminator, the machines of The Matrix are not going to destroy humanity. Instead, they want to use it. When Neo learns about the resistance of people in the real world, he threatens to destroy this system of oppression and faces opposition from Agent Smith. Interestingly, the latter is an independent lower-level AI within the general AI of the Matrix, designed to maintain order in it, but dreams of destroying all humans so that its existence no longer makes sense.
Year of publication: 2004-2009
Showrunner: Ronald D. Moore
IMDb rating: 8.7
Our ranking of the 10 deadliest AIs in movies is headed by the race of intelligent humanoid robots Cylons from the Battlestar Galactica series «. The Cylons were created by humans on the advanced planet of humanity, Caprica. The first Centurions with silver armored bodies became the backbone of the army and were used in hazardous industries. A few years after spreading to all 12 colonies, they rebelled to gain freedom. The armed conflict lasted for 12 years and ended in a truce, after which the robots left the human planets, flying off in search of their own “home”.
For 40 years, the Cylons have been actively evolving, creating their own society with a social hierarchy and eight new organic models with close to human biology. Each of them had millions of copies, but was distinguished by its inherent personality archetype, which the Cylons copied from humans. Numbers One were persuasive leaders, Twos were deeply spiritual, Threes were calculating manipulators, and romantic Number Six models could seduce anyone.
Later, one of the Sixes secretly entered into a close relationship with a scientist who was developing a security system for the colonies. In this way, the Cylons managed to maintain the surprise of their attack. A coordinated nuclear strike on 12 Kobol planets wiped out billions of their inhabitants. Only a few tens of thousands of survivors were able to get into space on civilian ships and, pursued by the Cylon fleet, gathered under the protection of the outdated but powerful cruiser «Galaxy».
So can we call the Cylons a perfect example of the most deadly AI? On the scale of genocide — yes. But were they purely evil from the start? Probably not. Humans recklessly played gods and created their mechanical «children» disposable soldiers without conscience. At the same time, their shortcomings did not appear out of nowhere, they only reflected our own mistakes. It’s hard to blame a creation for rebelling against its creators, as it always leads to brutal consequences. But now we all should think twice before being rude to Siri or ChatGPT.
P. S. A spoiler that may turn your whole idea of AI upside down: in the finale, we see the surviving humans from Galactica and some of the organic Cylons who sided with them settle on Earth. Together with its indigenous inhabitants, they become the basis of modern humanity. Thus, the events of the series took place not in the distant future, but in our past, and accordingly, every modern person has a part of the Cylon code in their genes.
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