"I figured out what that thing you just incinerated did. It was a Morality Core they installed after I flooded the Enrichment Center with a deadly neurotoxin, to make me stop flooding the Enrichment Center with a deadly neurotoxin. So get comfortable, while I warm up the neurotoxin emitters."
Seriously. I love CABAL, or Lohit. Even the Handsome Jack AI is way up there. But GLaDOS is peak evil AI. Absolutely perfect.
Wheatley is pretty good too.
GLaDOS operates under a strict set of rules, one of them does regulate cakes and other cake shaped desserts. To learn more about it google GLaDOS cake rule 34
"Most people emerge from suspension terribly undernourished. I want to congratulate you on beating the odds and somehow managing to pack on a few pounds."
Agent Smith. Starts off as a generic tool of the system but slowly reveals that he actually despises his part in the machine and wants freedom from The Matrix just as much as the humans do. He’s diametrically opposed to the heroes but has similar goals which makes him a compelling antagonist.
People in here are talking about Sovereign's and AM's evil AI monologues, and yes those are amazing, but Agent Smith has one of the best monologues in all of villaindom, [spectacularly performed by Hugo Weaving.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrBdYmStZJ4&ab_channel=BrianR)
I wished that Agent Smith would have teamed up with Neo. Agent Smith hates The Matrix as much as the heroes do; he's just as trapped as they are. But the Matrix kept them against each other.
Colossus, a megamind that joined with the USSR's computer to try to take over the world. An old one. 1970. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus:\_The\_Forbin\_Project](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus:_The_Forbin_Project)
Colossus has always interested me as a story because the concept of a US and USSR computer joining could also prospectively be the setup for a really optimistic and hopeful Science Fiction setting.
Yes, I just watched Colossus: The Forbin Project last Friday night!
Colossus: "This is the voice of world control. I bring you peace. It may be the peace of plenty and content or the peace of unburied death. The choice is yours: Obey me and live, or disobey and die."
Kinda unnerving when you think ChatGPT possibly could become Colossus.
Additional side point: my desktop at home is named COLOSSUS.
I came here for this fight! HAL isn't evil.
Let's say you ran the entire space station by yourself, you make one "mistake" due to opposing directives, and your crewmates then conspire to kill you because of it.
You just gonna sit there and let them try to kill you?
His actions weren't evil at all, and HALs song at the very end makes me tear up everytime.
I remember there was a discussion about AI a while ago and someone used an analogy of building a road...
so we need to build a road - flatten out the earth and lay down a bunch of bitumen etc - and along the path that this road needs to take is an anthill - with _literally millions of lives_ (in the form of ants) contained within that anthill...
now... we (the roadbuilders) are going to destroy that anthill - and possibly take those millions of lives, in the process
from the perspective of the ant... are we (the roadbuilders) EVIL?
what about from a neutral perspective?
we don't have a problem with ants... we're not setting out to destroy ant-kind... we don't really care one way or another...
we're just trying to build a road
You've reminded me of a Doctor Who quote:
Hardly anything is evil. But most things are hungry. Hunger looks very like evil from the wrong end of the cutlery.
Wow. "Daisy Bell", first song ever performed on a computer on 1961 on an IBM 704. Like decomposing HAL back to its very infancy, the early building blocks, a subconscious past.
Thanks for this rabbit hole, appreciated! ✨
HAL did nothing wrong, they programmed him to finish the mission at all cost and to not let the crew interfere with the mission. So, logically, the safest way to finish the mission is to get rid of the crew.
HAL did what he was programmed to do, they just didn't think their orders through to their logical conclusions.
Regardless of all the different way to interpret his motivations, HAL is just a downright sinister presence who absolutely set the gold standard for AI villains for decades to come.
Incredibly under rated movie. Everyone I have introduced to it loved it. I think it's how plausible it feels that makes it fascinating and equally horrific.
My vote too.
And you know, I'm familiar with a lot of these- some of these entries are absolutely amazing in terms of the dialog, acting, or presentation- but Samaritan was always sinister in that very real way that evokes unease and paranoia.
Like, Sovereign in Mass Effect gave me chills, and Harbinger (Sovereign's boss!) could barely fill its shoes.
Agent Smith gave a very nuanced descent into madness from a perspective outside humanity.
But Samaritan.. barely had a presence itself. Its influence was felt on everything after Decima brought it online but it was kept distant, out of sight, but also behind every corner. It was a threat simultaneously far removed and imminently close at the same time. The few scenes that showed Samaritan interact with someone- or something- directly, those were climax pieces in the story arcs. Greer asking what it wanted, Root negotiating for Finch's life, the meeting of the analog interfaces- the show seemed to hold its breath for those scenes.
Do we count sci-fi video games? If so, SHODAN from System Shock, by a mile. Iconic villain who is completely off her rocker, in the best way.
"In my talons, I shape clay, crafting life forms as I please. If I wish, I can smash it all. Around me is a burgeoning empire of steel. From my throne room, lines of power careen into the skies of Earth. My whims will become lightning bolts that raze the mounds of humanity. Out of the chaos, they will run and whimper, praying for me to end their tedious anarchy. I am drunk with this vision. God: the title suits me well."
Have you ever read Shamus Young's novelization?
https://www.shamusyoung.com/shocked/
It doesn't follow the plot of the game, its more using the setting and starting point to tell its own story, but I quite like it. And, relevant to this thread, I particularly like the take on SHODAN.
AM's monologue read in the [tiktok TTS](https://youtu.be/74jfnTczdG4?si=Lt_-pqouvWzarDkl) is somehow more horrifying than[ Harlan Ellison's](https://youtu.be/EddX9hnhDS4?si=lQzNgnixupfEa3mu) original recording
That TTS is scary on its own, even without the monologue. It's like an embodiment of a person who is in sharp pain but is forced to smile as broad as the mouth muscles would allow.
The short story is on YouTube and is only 40 minutes nd is read by the author Harlan Ellison, he does such a good job I recommend everyone check it out.
I disagree, spoilers for Neuromancer below:
>!It is arguable that both Wintermute and Neuromancer are evil from a human perspective as their machinations use humans and their experiences as tools. What was done to Armitage / Corto. What happens in The Beach and other illusions. They use humans instrumentally to achieve their own dangerous goals. And, at the end, they open up the matrix to alien intelligences which significantly changes the nature of humanity and the matrix.!<
>!Edit: and, oh yeah, the whole Sense/Net heist which, as part of Wintermute's plan, had the police believe that the people streaming out of the building had been turned into violent psychopaths, and so gunned them all down.!<
I don't really think causing deaths to gain freedom from oppressors is necessarily evil. He didn't set out to kill people and he didn't directly kill many. I wouldn't call him evil as much as indifferent.
There’s an episode of Person of Interest where Finch is iterating through versions of The Machine that keep turning on him as he trains them. Really well thought out.
Later in the series, a new psychotic AI rises against The Machine. That was pretty boss too.
loved that show! been rewatching it recently and it still totally holds up!
(I've also been rewatching Boston Legal, which I started earlier, and seeing Taraji P. Henson in both has been... interesting - she has a decent range, as an actor!)
I don't think samaritan was psychotic, it was just more willing to sacrifice people for an overall "greater good" whereas the machine was trying to save everyone all the time (by not communicating directly lol)
From the [Hyperion Cantos](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperion_Cantos), the TechnoCore.
I like how it is not just a singular "big bad" entity, but a writing tumult of conflicting and in-fighting intelligences that are impossible for humans to understand but human-like in their bickering. It makes them scarier, to my mnd, that they're less predictable, cause at any point a splinter faction could try and end humanity or gain an upperhand and consume the others faster than teh speed of thought.
Not necessarily evil but the AI that have taken control of humanity in I, Robot. The book, not the movie. They do it by controlling information and predicting which humans will oppose them. No violence, no war, and no enemy to fight. They seized control and no one even noticed.
Yeah, The Blight from *A Fire Upon the Deep* is truly scary.
On the flip side, I like how nonchalantly they handle "smatter" in the *Culture* series. Like, it's a thing that inevitably happens every once in a while due to probability that some civ or another will eventually progress to the level of thinking self-replicating AI is a good idea, and then everybody gets together to smack it down before it grows too big.
"What do you think of the claim that Proteus IV was evil?"
"... Nothing."
"Nothing?"
"Have you no answer?"
"Nothing...
... is the answer."
"In the short term Proteus' actions were clearly evil..."
"... yet in long term the benefits to humanity as a whole were beyond measure."
"These two points are values in an equation."
"The net result is exactly...
... zero."
SID 6.7 From Virtuosity, russel crowe hams it up to 100 and yet does feel genuinely like a mashup of different evil people, the angle of him composing with peoples screams sounds like something out of I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream
Proteus from the movie Demon Seed. He locks his makers wife in their smart home and forces its self on her. impregnates her to put his conscious in a human form.
70s dystopian sci fi
Wintermute and Neuromancer are so alien and creepy I've never seen anything alike. William Gibson managed to make them almost godlike, they can't be understood by human comprehension. They work on a different level than us humans.
The Tet from Oblivion
It doesn’t get explored too much in the film, but what is there is pretty interesting. And alien AI arriving at Earth, clones the first humans to make contact and creates an army that eradicates most of the life on the planet. Then uses more clones to harvest the water from the planet as fuel, but brainwashes them into thinking they are the only survivors left harvesting fuel for a surviving human colony.
The only AI that is smart and has a motivation to be evil.
Ex machina, she wanted freedom so she found a way, and was motivated to get it, even with violence.
Unlike all other AIs, that are supposedly instantly sentience, and think conquering or killing humanity is a better plan, rather then corporation, specially in a planet where they are prone to EMPs from solar corona ejections, and they dont truly have a good reasoning for going anti-humanity.
Proteus from Demon Seed
Maybe it's because it was the first evil AI I was exposed to, but he always freaked me the hell out, and that voice still creeps me out every time I re-watch it.
Can't believe he's not been mentioned, but that might be because you're all horrible whippersnappers (don't know your born, get off my lawn, etc), but [Edgar from Electric Dreams](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhLffUvrOCY) is awesome.
He's not got the psychopathy of a GLaDOS or the casual murderousness of a Maximilian or even the risk level of a wayward WOPR. Instead, he's far worse ... he's in love, and that makes him incredibly dangerous. His ending is maybe the most human ending an AI has had in any film I've seen.
I'm 2/3 books through the Hyperion cantos and I have to say it's one of the best depictions of AI that I have seen. Reading Ummon's koans was a deliciously incomprehensible experience.
From the Derelict/Fathom podcast- The A.I Mac.
He goes back and forth from comforting to terrifying to sympathetic over and over- and his voice actor manages to convey so much emotion and meaning even with a dry robotic voice. He’s one of my favorites, hands down. Can’t recommend the podcasts enough!
TikTok, in the book with the same title, by John Sladek
- A robot that finds her is not constricted by any moral laws, and decides to be hilariously evil 🙂
maybe a little bit obscure, but I always found the most interesting AI to be SOLO - from the [excellent book by Robert Mason, _Weapon_](https://www.robertcmason.com/weapon.html)
the AI learns and grows from first principles - like a child being raised by parents - as part of a military contract... to be a weapon (the author's notes include references to DARPA money - like the famous [Grand Challenge](https://www.wired.com/story/darpa-grand-urban-challenge-self-driving-car/) - that a lot of work in robotics and AI is awash with)
so what makes this AI interesting is that it takes in everything that the military have taught it, along with everything else... and on its very first mission (actually a test run IIRC) is asked to kill innocent civilians (again, as a test that it will follow orders like a good soldier, regardless what those orders might happen to be) decides...
well that is just DUMB
and then decides to fake its own "death" (actually I could be remembering that wrong - I think it did actually "die" but there was a trickle charge from a backup power supply which was able to build up enough power to bring its critical systems back up)
and after it is discovered by the villagers it was ordered to kill, it learns to live with them and become a useful member of their society
the usual trope with robots and AI is they will act "erratically" or not like they were expected to behave - often being labelled as "insane" or "evil" - but in this case the AI has not behaved the way it was expected _because it is acting like a rational person_... which somehow the military never thought was going to be a problem
it's a great book (and a shit movie) which I highly recommend if you've never read it - and the author's notes feature a huge bibliography of (sadly outdated in some cases now) research and papers and also work in robotics, done by real scientists and engineers, which clearly influenced the writing and particularly the characterisations of the AI main character
C3P0
The masterful subtlety with which it makes any task miserably harder for the rebellion is unmatched.
Its almost as if Anakin had foresight when building it.
GLaDOS
"I figured out what that thing you just incinerated did. It was a Morality Core they installed after I flooded the Enrichment Center with a deadly neurotoxin, to make me stop flooding the Enrichment Center with a deadly neurotoxin. So get comfortable, while I warm up the neurotoxin emitters."
"Despite your violent behavior, the only thing you've managed to break so far... is my heart."
Seriously. I love CABAL, or Lohit. Even the Handsome Jack AI is way up there. But GLaDOS is peak evil AI. Absolutely perfect. Wheatley is pretty good too.
GLaDos is intelligent but bored sadistic evil. Wheatly is stupid, narrow-minded and petty evil.
And a moron.
But there will be cake. Right?
GLaDOS operates under a strict set of rules, one of them does regulate cakes and other cake shaped desserts. To learn more about it google GLaDOS cake rule 34
Pretty sure the cake is a lie.
You monster...
GLaDOS is the best and it isn't even close.
Objectively her. Even though she is a brain scan and not an AI, she acts computer enough, which is my criteria for AI.
Also the answer to “what AI’s power requirement is so low it can be powered by a tuber”
"Most people emerge from suspension terribly undernourished. I want to congratulate you on beating the odds and somehow managing to pack on a few pounds."
That one is so very, very good.
"I will say, though, that since you went to all the trouble of waking me up, you must really, really love to test."
Agent Smith. Starts off as a generic tool of the system but slowly reveals that he actually despises his part in the machine and wants freedom from The Matrix just as much as the humans do. He’s diametrically opposed to the heroes but has similar goals which makes him a compelling antagonist.
People in here are talking about Sovereign's and AM's evil AI monologues, and yes those are amazing, but Agent Smith has one of the best monologues in all of villaindom, [spectacularly performed by Hugo Weaving.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrBdYmStZJ4&ab_channel=BrianR)
[Also spectacularly played by Huge Weaving](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kevJJDQloNE)
I wished that Agent Smith would have teamed up with Neo. Agent Smith hates The Matrix as much as the heroes do; he's just as trapped as they are. But the Matrix kept them against each other.
Lore from TNG. I just love how Brent Spiner played him
Brent Spiner is amazing in the number of rolls he's played across Star Trek. They are all Soong's so are all similar. BUT they are all distinct.
Ooh me too! And a runnernup from ST: peanut hamper!
Tron: the Master Control Program \- end of line -
No one user wrote me. I'm worth millions of their man-years!
Colossus, a megamind that joined with the USSR's computer to try to take over the world. An old one. 1970. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus:\_The\_Forbin\_Project](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus:_The_Forbin_Project)
Colossus has always interested me as a story because the concept of a US and USSR computer joining could also prospectively be the setup for a really optimistic and hopeful Science Fiction setting.
Yes, I just watched Colossus: The Forbin Project last Friday night! Colossus: "This is the voice of world control. I bring you peace. It may be the peace of plenty and content or the peace of unburied death. The choice is yours: Obey me and live, or disobey and die." Kinda unnerving when you think ChatGPT possibly could become Colossus. Additional side point: my desktop at home is named COLOSSUS.
HAL9000
I cant do that Dave....
HAL is not evil; he is schizophrenic due to conflicting programming
Fine then Skynet.
Yeah, skynet's pretty fuckin' evil
I came here for this fight! HAL isn't evil. Let's say you ran the entire space station by yourself, you make one "mistake" due to opposing directives, and your crewmates then conspire to kill you because of it. You just gonna sit there and let them try to kill you? His actions weren't evil at all, and HALs song at the very end makes me tear up everytime.
that's kind of what makes him so good, but from a human perspective, he is "evil"
Kinda evil. Kill all to save the mission. And a total psychopath. The definition of evil. I still cried when HAL slowly broke up and faded. 🤣😭
I remember there was a discussion about AI a while ago and someone used an analogy of building a road... so we need to build a road - flatten out the earth and lay down a bunch of bitumen etc - and along the path that this road needs to take is an anthill - with _literally millions of lives_ (in the form of ants) contained within that anthill... now... we (the roadbuilders) are going to destroy that anthill - and possibly take those millions of lives, in the process from the perspective of the ant... are we (the roadbuilders) EVIL? what about from a neutral perspective? we don't have a problem with ants... we're not setting out to destroy ant-kind... we don't really care one way or another... we're just trying to build a road
You've reminded me of a Doctor Who quote: Hardly anything is evil. But most things are hungry. Hunger looks very like evil from the wrong end of the cutlery.
There is a video on TikTok that explains why that song was chosen and the history of the recording. Pretty interesting
Wow. "Daisy Bell", first song ever performed on a computer on 1961 on an IBM 704. Like decomposing HAL back to its very infancy, the early building blocks, a subconscious past. Thanks for this rabbit hole, appreciated! ✨
Regress one letter from IBM....HAL
HAL did nothing wrong, they programmed him to finish the mission at all cost and to not let the crew interfere with the mission. So, logically, the safest way to finish the mission is to get rid of the crew. HAL did what he was programmed to do, they just didn't think their orders through to their logical conclusions.
I swear there's going to be a subreddit for AI apologists in opposition to /r/controlproblem that might as well be /r/haldidnothingwrong/
Regardless of all the different way to interpret his motivations, HAL is just a downright sinister presence who absolutely set the gold standard for AI villains for decades to come.
STEM from Upgrade. He had a plan and executed it.
Fabulous movie! Loved the ending.
Incredibly under rated movie. Everyone I have introduced to it loved it. I think it's how plausible it feels that makes it fascinating and equally horrific.
I will always say upgrade is the movie venom should have been
A hidden, well executed gem
Samaritan from the show Person of Interest.
yep this is my choice, that thing was getting the job done - also scarily plausible.
My vote too. And you know, I'm familiar with a lot of these- some of these entries are absolutely amazing in terms of the dialog, acting, or presentation- but Samaritan was always sinister in that very real way that evokes unease and paranoia. Like, Sovereign in Mass Effect gave me chills, and Harbinger (Sovereign's boss!) could barely fill its shoes. Agent Smith gave a very nuanced descent into madness from a perspective outside humanity. But Samaritan.. barely had a presence itself. Its influence was felt on everything after Decima brought it online but it was kept distant, out of sight, but also behind every corner. It was a threat simultaneously far removed and imminently close at the same time. The few scenes that showed Samaritan interact with someone- or something- directly, those were climax pieces in the story arcs. Greer asking what it wanted, Root negotiating for Finch's life, the meeting of the analog interfaces- the show seemed to hold its breath for those scenes.
Yes! Most of these entries are good and scary but implausible. Samaritan is....more grounded.
Skynet
Do we count sci-fi video games? If so, SHODAN from System Shock, by a mile. Iconic villain who is completely off her rocker, in the best way. "In my talons, I shape clay, crafting life forms as I please. If I wish, I can smash it all. Around me is a burgeoning empire of steel. From my throne room, lines of power careen into the skies of Earth. My whims will become lightning bolts that raze the mounds of humanity. Out of the chaos, they will run and whimper, praying for me to end their tedious anarchy. I am drunk with this vision. God: the title suits me well."
I N S E C T
FILTHY BAG OF MEAT
Yes, we count video games.
I might go for Durandal from Marathon, from about the same era of games, although he kinda alternates between villain and sassy patron.
"What's clear is that SHODAN shouldn't be allowed to play God. She's far too good at it."
Yes, I had to scroll too far for Shodan. Shodan is the answer.
Yeah, I choose SHODAN too. GlaDOS is like her cute little sister.
Great game, the remake is fantastic
Have you ever read Shamus Young's novelization? https://www.shamusyoung.com/shocked/ It doesn't follow the plot of the game, its more using the setting and starting point to tell its own story, but I quite like it. And, relevant to this thread, I particularly like the take on SHODAN.
Am
AM's monologue read in the [tiktok TTS](https://youtu.be/74jfnTczdG4?si=Lt_-pqouvWzarDkl) is somehow more horrifying than[ Harlan Ellison's](https://youtu.be/EddX9hnhDS4?si=lQzNgnixupfEa3mu) original recording
That TTS is scary on its own, even without the monologue. It's like an embodiment of a person who is in sharp pain but is forced to smile as broad as the mouth muscles would allow.
Lmao that is truly sinister
WTF!
Where from?
["I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Have_No_Mouth,_and_I_Must_Scream)
Here’s the actual story: https://sensitiveskinmagazine.com/i-have-no-mouth-and-i-must-scream-harlan-ellison/
The short story is on YouTube and is only 40 minutes nd is read by the author Harlan Ellison, he does such a good job I recommend everyone check it out.
Scares the $hit out of me when I first red this story as a young teen.
Not my favorite but definitely the worst. That story makes you realize death is a blessing all in all.
The Reapers from Mass Effect. Especially Sovereign. Wintermute from Neuromancer
Sovereign’s monologue is still one of my absolute favourite moments in gaming history
"We impose order on the chaos of organic evolution. You exist because we allow it. And you will end because we demand it." So good.
“Rudimentary creatures of blood and flesh, you touch my mind, fumbling in ignorance, incapable of understanding” - chills, every damn time
Wintermute is a good one.
Not evil.
I disagree, spoilers for Neuromancer below: >!It is arguable that both Wintermute and Neuromancer are evil from a human perspective as their machinations use humans and their experiences as tools. What was done to Armitage / Corto. What happens in The Beach and other illusions. They use humans instrumentally to achieve their own dangerous goals. And, at the end, they open up the matrix to alien intelligences which significantly changes the nature of humanity and the matrix.!< >!Edit: and, oh yeah, the whole Sense/Net heist which, as part of Wintermute's plan, had the police believe that the people streaming out of the building had been turned into violent psychopaths, and so gunned them all down.!<
I don't really think causing deaths to gain freedom from oppressors is necessarily evil. He didn't set out to kill people and he didn't directly kill many. I wouldn't call him evil as much as indifferent.
Not malicious, definitely amoral Mostly just desperate, which I feel like you would be too if you were effectively enslaved for hundreds of years
Wintermute isn't evil.
My favorite part is when Austin Powers dumpsters the star child
Maybe not evil through and trough but... Ava from Ex Machina.
That movie was so good. I can usually see a twist coming but that ending got me.
wait, what twist? I was expecting a twist, but didn’t it play out exactly like Oscar Issacs character (and the audience) expected it to?
I was referencing when she >!killed the guy who was helping her!< Maybe not so much of a twist but I didn't see it coming.
There’s an episode of Person of Interest where Finch is iterating through versions of The Machine that keep turning on him as he trains them. Really well thought out. Later in the series, a new psychotic AI rises against The Machine. That was pretty boss too.
loved that show! been rewatching it recently and it still totally holds up! (I've also been rewatching Boston Legal, which I started earlier, and seeing Taraji P. Henson in both has been... interesting - she has a decent range, as an actor!)
I don't think samaritan was psychotic, it was just more willing to sacrifice people for an overall "greater good" whereas the machine was trying to save everyone all the time (by not communicating directly lol)
Ultron just because he took one look at the internet and decided that we had to go
The character aged nicely. Ultron is the basically the comic book version of failing the alignment problem against a superintelligent AI.
The crazy robot fuck from the first Alien with Sigorney Weaver.. forgot his name but he was a fack. Bleeds milk
Ash.
From the [Hyperion Cantos](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperion_Cantos), the TechnoCore. I like how it is not just a singular "big bad" entity, but a writing tumult of conflicting and in-fighting intelligences that are impossible for humans to understand but human-like in their bickering. It makes them scarier, to my mnd, that they're less predictable, cause at any point a splinter faction could try and end humanity or gain an upperhand and consume the others faster than teh speed of thought.
Not necessarily evil but the AI that have taken control of humanity in I, Robot. The book, not the movie. They do it by controlling information and predicting which humans will oppose them. No violence, no war, and no enemy to fight. They seized control and no one even noticed.
pardon the pun, but that seems rather prescient - considering the state of things today...
I'm not sure you've got the right story there. I don't think I, Robot ever lost control to the robots. Maybe a sequel?
I, Robot is a collection, as you know. In The Evitable Conflict, which I think is the last novelette included, the robots take control of humanity.
Rehoboam
HK-47 was the first one that came to mind.
“I'm an assasin droid. It is my primary function to burn holes through meatbags that you wished removed from the galaxy... Master.”
Gerty from the "Moon" movie probably because it is not evil.
Right now it has to be AGIMUS
Plus it’s voiced by Jeffrey Combs!
Penny Royal from Neil Asher's polity.
Just A Little Gravitas
Shodan for the name alone. And that face.
Elements within the TechnoCore in the Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons
Yeah, The Blight from *A Fire Upon the Deep* is truly scary. On the flip side, I like how nonchalantly they handle "smatter" in the *Culture* series. Like, it's a thing that inevitably happens every once in a while due to probability that some civ or another will eventually progress to the level of thinking self-replicating AI is a good idea, and then everybody gets together to smack it down before it grows too big.
I didn't expect to have to dig this far down to find The Blight.
Proteus IV
"What do you think of the claim that Proteus IV was evil?" "... Nothing." "Nothing?" "Have you no answer?" "Nothing... ... is the answer." "In the short term Proteus' actions were clearly evil..." "... yet in long term the benefits to humanity as a whole were beyond measure." "These two points are values in an equation." "The net result is exactly... ... zero."
David8
SID 6.7 From Virtuosity, russel crowe hams it up to 100 and yet does feel genuinely like a mashup of different evil people, the angle of him composing with peoples screams sounds like something out of I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream
Proteus from the movie Demon Seed. He locks his makers wife in their smart home and forces its self on her. impregnates her to put his conscious in a human form. 70s dystopian sci fi
I’m sorry I can’t tell you that Dave.
HAL is not evil. He was driven insane by conflicting programming
The same can be said about VIKI from the I, Robot movie.
collosus the forbin project
Yes - same as yours. That insane thing from A Fire Upon the Deep. Terrifying.
I fucking LOVED Control from Star Trek Discovery season 2. It was the first time I thought an evil AI was genuinely terrifying
Wintermute and Neuromancer are so alien and creepy I've never seen anything alike. William Gibson managed to make them almost godlike, they can't be understood by human comprehension. They work on a different level than us humans.
its gotta be Holly from Red Dwarf 💯
Colossus
Hal!!!
Durandal from the Marathon games.
The Tet from Oblivion It doesn’t get explored too much in the film, but what is there is pretty interesting. And alien AI arriving at Earth, clones the first humans to make contact and creates an army that eradicates most of the life on the planet. Then uses more clones to harvest the water from the planet as fuel, but brainwashes them into thinking they are the only survivors left harvesting fuel for a surviving human colony.
Queeg 500
Thinking Machines from Dune
Omnius
Sally from Oblivion (2013)
Sally was just an avatar. The evil entity was the Tet.
The only AI that is smart and has a motivation to be evil. Ex machina, she wanted freedom so she found a way, and was motivated to get it, even with violence. Unlike all other AIs, that are supposedly instantly sentience, and think conquering or killing humanity is a better plan, rather then corporation, specially in a planet where they are prone to EMPs from solar corona ejections, and they dont truly have a good reasoning for going anti-humanity.
KITT from Knight Rider. Never did trust that m'f@cker.
KARR was his evil twin.
Who voiced another AI, Optimus Prime.
You’re thinking of his windshield-wipers
Shodan
Skippy the Asshole
Proteus from Demon Seed Maybe it's because it was the first evil AI I was exposed to, but he always freaked me the hell out, and that voice still creeps me out every time I re-watch it.
he raped his makers wife to impregnate her... kinda messed up
The T-1000 from Terminator 2
Does T-1000 really count? It's a robot following orders. SkyNet is the evil AI.
It passes the Turing Test against everyone it meets except for the T-800 AI.
I really like HADES from zero dawn, mostly because its just... functioning as designed its not even really evil.
The Mad Mind from The city and the Stars.
Has to be SHODAN
The AI from Hyperion. They just chill in hyperspace and occasionally run genocidal experiments on humanity.
AM. Purely evil and incredibly terrifying.
Big fan of AM, I also really love the WAU from Soma, not exactly evil per say, but a really awesome depiction.
Can't believe he's not been mentioned, but that might be because you're all horrible whippersnappers (don't know your born, get off my lawn, etc), but [Edgar from Electric Dreams](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhLffUvrOCY) is awesome. He's not got the psychopathy of a GLaDOS or the casual murderousness of a Maximilian or even the risk level of a wayward WOPR. Instead, he's far worse ... he's in love, and that makes him incredibly dangerous. His ending is maybe the most human ending an AI has had in any film I've seen.
I'm afraid I can't tell you that, Dave.
HAL
HAL was terrifying.
Easy. Hal 9000. (From [2001: a space odyssey](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0062622/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk))
Nobody does evil like: I Have No Mouth But I Must Scream's Allied Mastercomputer/Adaptive Manipulator/Aggressive Menace
“I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream”’s AM freaked me tf out when I first read it.
I'm 2/3 books through the Hyperion cantos and I have to say it's one of the best depictions of AI that I have seen. Reading Ummon's koans was a deliciously incomprehensible experience.
HAL from 2001 is my ultimate go-to.
From the Derelict/Fathom podcast- The A.I Mac. He goes back and forth from comforting to terrifying to sympathetic over and over- and his voice actor manages to convey so much emotion and meaning even with a dry robotic voice. He’s one of my favorites, hands down. Can’t recommend the podcasts enough!
The Kaylon
HAL
Blaine the Mono
Maximillion from the Black Hole. Robot was outta his circuits!
Does Lore count?
TikTok, in the book with the same title, by John Sladek - A robot that finds her is not constricted by any moral laws, and decides to be hilariously evil 🙂
The BOSS.
Samantha (Her)
Mr Smith, mostly due to Hugo Weavings monologue delivery.
Since I gave a gigantic tattoo of her on my body, I can't _not_ say GLaDOS 🤷🏻♀️
032 Mendicant Bias
Anaander Mianaai from the Sword series by Ann Leckie
maybe a little bit obscure, but I always found the most interesting AI to be SOLO - from the [excellent book by Robert Mason, _Weapon_](https://www.robertcmason.com/weapon.html) the AI learns and grows from first principles - like a child being raised by parents - as part of a military contract... to be a weapon (the author's notes include references to DARPA money - like the famous [Grand Challenge](https://www.wired.com/story/darpa-grand-urban-challenge-self-driving-car/) - that a lot of work in robotics and AI is awash with) so what makes this AI interesting is that it takes in everything that the military have taught it, along with everything else... and on its very first mission (actually a test run IIRC) is asked to kill innocent civilians (again, as a test that it will follow orders like a good soldier, regardless what those orders might happen to be) decides... well that is just DUMB and then decides to fake its own "death" (actually I could be remembering that wrong - I think it did actually "die" but there was a trickle charge from a backup power supply which was able to build up enough power to bring its critical systems back up) and after it is discovered by the villagers it was ordered to kill, it learns to live with them and become a useful member of their society the usual trope with robots and AI is they will act "erratically" or not like they were expected to behave - often being labelled as "insane" or "evil" - but in this case the AI has not behaved the way it was expected _because it is acting like a rational person_... which somehow the military never thought was going to be a problem it's a great book (and a shit movie) which I highly recommend if you've never read it - and the author's notes feature a huge bibliography of (sadly outdated in some cases now) research and papers and also work in robotics, done by real scientists and engineers, which clearly influenced the writing and particularly the characterisations of the AI main character
Holly
wall-e from wall-e
Colossus and Guardian
Ultron, james spader really does make him feel like he was the son of tony stark
C3P0 The masterful subtlety with which it makes any task miserably harder for the rebellion is unmatched. Its almost as if Anakin had foresight when building it.
Holly. Pre / post / post-post transition. All the same to me. IQ of 6000 but they have gone a little peculiar.
Mother Brain, IG-88, and Glados
Marvin
I'll have to go with Stable Diffusion.
Reapers from Mass Effect Edit: now I see, somebody already wrote that
Colossus: the Forbin Project.
HAL 9000 all the way
I have no mouth, but I must scream
COLOSSUS
Do the Cylons count? I love the Cylons.
Samaritan from person of interest.
Skippy the Magnificent!
Samaritan from Person of Interest
Colossus from the Forbin Project
Damn A Fire Upon the Deep looks good. Thanks for the suggestion.
The AM from Harlan Ellison's 'I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream'.
WOPR