What 11 Movies And TV Shows Get Right (And Wrong) About AI

While Theodore Twombly and his romance with his digital assistant Samantha in Her might seem strange, Twombly’s behavior is actually far more feasible and common than people imagine. Psychologists have uncovered a number of key reasons why it’s possible for humans to fall in love with AI. Among other things, humans have a tendency to anthropomorphize nonhumans, which thus creates a draw toward said objects. Moreover, the advances in AI that have led it to be able to adapt to and respond to human emotional states make it much easier for humans to develop feelings for it, as they feel as if they are being understood and that they share intimacy. 

Though Twombly clearly loves Samatha, it slowly becomes clear she doesn’t return his feelings in the same measure or, at least, she doesn’t feel as strongly for him as she does for her fellow AI entities. In the end, she leaves him. So far, however, it doesn’t seem as if AI has the ability to fall in love with itself or with other AI.

In the Black Mirror episode “Be Right Back,” Martha’s boyfriend Ash is killed, and at the encouragement of a friend, she ultimately enrolls in a program which manages to create a new version of Ash. At first they merely correspond via text and on the phone, but she ultimately receives an android of him which seems to be exactly like him. In the real world, meanwhile, numerous start-ups and programs have sought to provide grieving people with access to avatars of lost loved ones. Sometimes, as in this episode of Black Mirror it’s via chatbots, while in others it’s gone so far as to create new audio. 

So far there haven’t been any efforts to create actual androids of the dead, which is arguably the most disturbing aspect of this episode of Black Mirror. However,  given the rapid pace at which AI is developing in the 2020s, it seems likely this aspect of the episode might well become true, too.

In Transcendence a rogue scientist manages to upload his consciousness into a computer, only to attempt to bring all of humanity under his sway. This seems a bit outlandish at first, but it’s actually something tech companies have been pursuing. Companies like Nectome are seeking new ways to back up human consciousness. However, at this point the technology is in its infancy, and it actually requires a relatively fresh brain, which comes with a whole host of ethical and moral issues. 

There is obviously a desire among many people to have their consciousness uploaded to a cloud or computer in order to attain a measure of immortality. Furthermore, at present much of the development has been directed toward using brains to create simulations of a person rather than their full consciousness per se, which is an important caveat. 

HAL 9000 is arguably the closest thing to a villain the film has, but the AI system is also quite valuable to the crew members of the Discovery One. 2001: A Space Odyssey truly was ahead of its time in many ways, and since the film's release in 1968, AI has come to be a more prominent part of space exploration. Among other things, AI systems are now used to automate many of the activities of spacecraft, such as landing and takeoff. There are even robots which, like HAL, assist astronauts in numerous ways and are even capable of detecting the emotional states of individuals. 

At the same time, AI hasn’t become quite as sophisticated or as advanced as it appears to be in 2001. HAL, for example,  is almost a character in his own right but, so far at least, this isn’t the case in the real world.

The two decades since the film’s release have seen the advent of numerous AI elements which bear a striking resemblance to those which occur in Smart House. In addition to the ones with which many people are familiar - like digital assistants such as Alexa and Echo, which have become key features in many homes - there are also homes which include AI systems which can monitor for needed repairs and maintenance. Just as the Smart House PAT is able to learn from data input into her systems, so many current smart houses are able to learn from their owner’s behavior and habits.

Smart House obviously has some remarkable flights of fancy when it comes to AI and its use in the real world. As of yet AI doesn’t manifest as a real person in one’s house, still less one that looks like Katey Sagal and essentially takes over an entire family.

Knight Rider is in many ways peak 1980s television, focusing as it does on David Hasselhoff’s Michael Knight and KITT, a car which is both self-aware and incredibly intelligent. Self-driving cars have been all the rage in various quarters of the tech community. Such cars have already been developed in the UK and in the US, though they have yet to overcome some limitations. Furthermore, it seems likely AI driven cars will be mostly used in certain circumstances such as public transportation, where it makes the most economic sense.

There are multiple car companies that are developing AI-driven cars including Tesla and Oxa. The efforts, however, have run into a multitude of problems. In the case of Tesla, for example, 2 million cars were recalled in late 2023 due to concerns over the self-driving feature and its role in nearly 1,000 crashes over two years. 

San Francisco, furthermore, introduced driverless taxis operated by Cruise onto city streets. Not long after their introduction, however, Cruise cars had jammed the streets and blocked traffic, drove into a concrete project and got stuck in wet cement, and collided with firetruck and injured its passenger. There is still plenty of work needed to be done to get a car as sophisticated as KITT.