Forget Chat GPT - watch these best AI movies instead

In this eerie movie from Alex Garland (of The Beach fame), a programmer called Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) is selected to take part in a ground-breaking experiment in artificial intelligence. He’s whisked away to a remote house to test the human qualities of a beautiful and highly-advanced robot called Ava, who has been designed by a reclusive genius, Nathan (played by Oscar Isaac). But all isn’t as it seems and the experiment takes a very dark turn. Although this movie has all the set dressing of sci-fi, it feels incredibly gothic in its tone, too.

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Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 sci-fi classic 2001: A Space Odyssey features one of the most iconic examples of AI ever seen on screen, the HAL 9000. HAL (which stands for Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer) is the AI aboard the Discovery One spacecraft, which is on a mission to Jupiter. HAL, depicted as a camera lens with a red light in the middle, is there to help the crew but at a certain point it’s clear that it’s really on its own secret mission.

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A true sci-fi classic, Blade Runner is set in a dystopian future in which a retired cop called Rick Deckard (played by Harrison Ford) is brought back to work to hunt down and “retire” (read: kill) androids known as replicants. As he tracks them down he begins to question his morality, especially as he gets close to one.

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Some of the movies in this list feature more thoughtful interpretations of AI, but Terminator is all about killer robots who want us all dead so much they’re willing to travel back in time to do it. The first movie in the Terminator franchise came out back in 1984 and it’s about a cyborg assassin who’s been sent from the future to kill Sarah Connor, a woman who will one day give birth to the leader of the human resistance.

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The 1979 sci-fi horror movie Alien is about the crew of a commercial spaceship, the Nostromo, who respond to a distress signal that ultimately brings a big, deadly, terrifying alien on board. So far so not about AI, right? But there’s an interesting twist in that the Nostromo’s science officer Ash (played by Ian Holm) is an android acting on secret orders to bring the alien back to Earth, even if it means sacrificing the crew.

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Moon is an underrated sci-fi film from Duncan Jones. It’s about Sam Bell (played by Sam Rockwell), an astronaut stationed on his own on the Moon. Well, he’s the only human on the Moon. There’s also an AI computer called GERTY who keeps him company. He’s on a three-year-long mission that’s nearly at an end but Sam starts to experience weird hallucinations and uncovers a dark and horrifying secret about his true purpose.

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Loosely based on Isaac Asimov's 1950 short-story collection, I Robot is set in a not-so-distant future in which robots are pretty common, taking on lots of different roles within society. But they must all follow the Three Laws of Robotics. This sounds like sci-fi through and through, but it’s also part murder mystery as a detective (played by Will Smith) must investigate how a prominent scientist was killed, possibly at the hands of a highly advanced robot who was the only witness.

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WALL-E is set in a post-apocalyptic future in which Earth is a barren hellscape and humans live on a space station, eating lots and doing very little. WALL-E is the main character, a robot that’s been left on the Earth’s surface to clean up and falls in love with a sleek new robot called EVE. It’s a very cute and adorable watch but there are some powerful themes weaved in about consumerism and the environment, as well as AI.

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A sequel to the 1982 movie, Blade Runner 2049 is set 30 years later. It follows the story of Officer K (played by Ryan Gosling), a new model of replicant who’s tasked with retiring older models that have gone rogue. While on a mission he begins to unravel secrets that could destroy the already fragile relationship between humans and replicants.

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Her is a romantic sci-fi film directed by Spike Jonze set in a candy-coloured, near-future Los Angeles. It follows the story of a lonely greeting card writer named Theodore (played by Jaoquin Phoenix) who falls in love with his AI operating system, called Samantha (voiced by Scarlett Johansson). As their relationship deepens, Theodore and Samantha need to face up to the limitations of their unconventional romance. As you might expect, this is a quirky film which might feel a little OTT at times but its meditation on love, intimacy and connection will linger long after you’ve finished watching.

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AI: Artificial Intelligence is set in a future where humans have created advanced robots to serve as companions. The story follows a couple who desperately want kids, so they adopt a robot child called David. However, things don’t quite go according to plan and David must go out into the world all on his own, meeting other advanced robots along the way. In many ways AI is a kind of sci-fi retelling of the Pinocchio story, as David dreams of becoming human.

Image credit: Warner Bros Pictures / Dreamworks Pictures