In 2024, AI is making headlines daily. We may be aware of the science, but how do we imagine AI and our relationship to it both now and in the future? Fortunately, film may provide us with some insights.
Probably the best-known AI in film is HAL 9000 from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). HAL is an artificially intelligent computer housed on board a spacecraft capable of interstellar travel. The film was released less than a year before humans landed on the moon. And yet, even in this optimism about a new era of space travel, HAL’s portrayal sounded a note of caution about artificial intelligence. His motivations are ambiguous, and he shows himself capable of turning against his human crew.
This 1960s classic demonstrates fears that are common throughout AI film history – that AIs cannot be trusted, that they will rebel against their human creators, and seek to overpower or overthrow us.
