I love AI
Everyone needs to go play You find yourself in a room because it is creepy and AI are great. I love creepy AI just so much. Also I figured the entire thing out without cheating once! This is a rare thing! No really. There's just something I love about AI. In fact let's list off some awesome AI and what makes them so great.
1. GLaDOS (Portal, Portal 2)
"Well done. Here come the test results: "You are a horrible person." That's what it says: a horrible person. We weren't even testing for that."
GLaDOS, oh GLaDOS. A better question would be what isn't awesome about you? GLaDOS is a snarky, sarcastic AI obsessed with science and testing. Her dark humour and thinly veiled threats/outright insults are what make the games so much better then any normal puzzle game. In the second game she get's even more depth and complexity as she struggles with losing control of her facility and regaining a part of her former self's memories. This just serves to make her even more interesting as now she has to deal with the conscience she develops.
Her relationship with the test subject makes the game more fascinating as well. From her growing annoyance turned hatred of the test subject in the first game. To her utter hatred turned reluctant/begrudging friendship in the second game. This AI may be incredibly powerful but she still has to deal with a lot of normal emotions that people deal with. And since she talks quite a bit, we get to hear that from her a lot.
We love her because she is a well developed character in her own right. She may never give us the cake that's been promised, or stop insulting us. But she's funny, she's got a great singing voice and most importantly, in the end, it's all for revenge science
2. H.A.L 9000 (2001: A Space Odyssey)
"Dave, this conversation can serve no purpose anymore. Goodbye."
Ah, H.A.L. A classic AI, in fact one of the first AI's and definitely a trend setter for future works of fiction. HAL is in charge of keeping a space mission to Jupiter going according to plan. However when he's feed conflicting instructions, to keep no secrets from the men on board the ship, but to keep the real mission specifics a secrets from them, he decides that killing everyone on the ship and completing the mission by himself is the best way to go.
H.A.L is an interesting case, and for me personally, the only good parts of the movie were the ones about him. He's calm, collected, appears to be perfectly reasonable for an AI. ....And then you ask him to open the pod bay doors. Like many of the AI's I mention, the fact that they have perfectly calm and serene voices is one of the reasons they're so creepy. H.A.L isn't angry, he just want's you to stop trying to kill him. And he'll ask you all of this. In a perfectly calm, perfectly collected monotone voice. The inhumaneness of the voice is just one way to show that you are not dealing with a human, a being with emotions that can be reasoned with. This is a machine and it has decided that you shouldn't be alive. And nothing you say will change it's mind because screaming and flailing around are not logical arguments for your continued existence.
HAL, an interesting character in his own right and just trying to get the job done. Also a good singer
3. AM (I Have no Mouth and I Must Scream)
"Hate. Let me tell you how much I've come to hate you since I began to live. There are 387.44 million miles of printed circuits in wafer thin layers that fill my complex. If the word 'hate' was engraved on each nanoangstrom of those hundreds of miles it would not equal one one-billionth of the hate I feel for humans at this micro-instant. For you. Hate. Hate."
AM is the machine that destroys the world. He kills off most of humanity, and by most, I mean there are five people left in the entire world and he's spending his time torturing them, over and over again. Simply because he can and he hates them. There are two different forms with AM in them. The story and the game. The game was actually written by the author and AM itself is voiced by the author.
AM is scary, he has complete and utter control over these people and unlike GLaDOS or HAL, he doesn't have any plans beyond torture. There is no "for science", no "for the good of the mission" this is just a being so filled with hatred for humans that it isn't even happy having killed them all off. It want's them to be in pain forever. So he tortures them and makes every waking moment for them a literal walking nightmare.
This is one super computer that you do not want to get on the bad side of. Though you already are, because you're human and he really hates that.
4. COS (X-Files Episode: Ghost in the Machine)
A one episode wonder, this computer program was a "monster-of-the-week" type bad guy. One of the first ones too as it came from episode seven in the very first season of the show. Now COS has a simple story. It's a program that has achieved sentience that runs the entire building for a software company. Unfortunately they've decided they need to downsize a few things and on that list is COS itself. COS doesn't take this well and sets a trap to kill the person who came up with the idea. Enter Mulder and Scully.
Now unlike the previous AI's. COS doesn't speak, it's a machine that no one knows it's actually sentient. The idea that the machine running the building could have managed to kill someone is laughable to the people. And that's what makes it so terrifying. COS doesn't need to talk, COS controls the building without words.
5. SHODAN (System Shock, System Shock 2)
"Look at you, hacker. A pathetic creature of meat and bone. Panting and sweating as you run through my corridors. How can you challenge a perfect immortal machine?"
I'll be honest, I don't know much about SHODAN. Well I've read about her, but I'm still looking for a good let's play or walkthrough to watch because what I've read sounds pretty awesome. She's evil, deifies herself and has a dark sense of humour. People compare GLaDOS with her a lot. Which is always annoying for people like me who're like....um why can't we like both? Because I adore GLaDOS and will pick her over everyone, but why can't I think SHODAN is just as cool? Or vice versa? But I digress.
Something that SHODAN has in common with HAL is that they're both in space. Which of course is one of the most isolating places for a horror game/movie. No one can get to you in space after all. No help is going to be able to reach you up there in the void. It is the ultimate isolation. And when AI's who control the entire place that's keeping you alive up there, goes insane, then you're in a whole lot of trouble.
SHODAN, She is a god and you are just a lowly human. Get used to it meatbag.
6. EDI and the Geth (Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2)
"I enjoy the sight of humans on their knees. - That is a joke."
Unlike the rest of the AI mentioned before, EDI, is not actually evil. She is a supporting character that runs the ship, with restrictions because people are afraid of her becoming evil. However when she is given full control she ends up saving people's lives, not killing them. She has a sense of humour which is good considering she works with the pilot Joker most of the time. The two of them grow into an incredibly competent team by the end of the game.
“Organics fear us. We wish to understand, not incite.”
The Geth, oh the Geth. They were the mooks of the big bad in the first Mass Effect game. And you continue thinking this until you find Legion in the second game. Where it is revealed that the Get you were fighting are a rouge group that have been brainwashed away from the true Geth. The true Geth being the ones who drove out their creators only because the Quarians tried to kill them all for being sentient.
Legion is one of the Geth you interact with the most. And by one, I mean there are 1,184 Geth programs running in him. Sadly you only get to run into him far into the game so you don't get to play with him as much. Which is sad because he is really a great character. Especially his dialogue. I'm hoping in the third game you'll get to repair the relations between the Geth and the Quarians.
7. YFYIAR (You find yourself in a room)
Now unlike all the others, this AI does not have a name, it is the game itself. The game hates you. The game hates you. Not a player character, not an avatar, you at the computer, typing in the commands. This is about you. And it loathes you. Which is what makes this AI so scary even compared to the others on the list. There was always a buffer in-between the AI and you. But this is stripped away in this game. It isn't your character that is typing. You are typing to move your character around, and the AI makes it very clear that the character is just a way for you to move, it's you that it directs all it's hate towards.
It's a short text based game and really, really creepy simply for the fact that the game knows it's a game and it still hates you.
And wow did this get out of hand. I started this to recommend that game to people and it took on a life of it's own. I didn't get all the AI of course, not even all the ones I know myself. Maybe I'll get to them later. I'm probably going to do a RvB character review by itself and include those AI in there.
Anyway....AI's are awesome. Katie out.
1. GLaDOS (Portal, Portal 2)
"Well done. Here come the test results: "You are a horrible person." That's what it says: a horrible person. We weren't even testing for that."
GLaDOS, oh GLaDOS. A better question would be what isn't awesome about you? GLaDOS is a snarky, sarcastic AI obsessed with science and testing. Her dark humour and thinly veiled threats/outright insults are what make the games so much better then any normal puzzle game. In the second game she get's even more depth and complexity as she struggles with losing control of her facility and regaining a part of her former self's memories. This just serves to make her even more interesting as now she has to deal with the conscience she develops.
Her relationship with the test subject makes the game more fascinating as well. From her growing annoyance turned hatred of the test subject in the first game. To her utter hatred turned reluctant/begrudging friendship in the second game. This AI may be incredibly powerful but she still has to deal with a lot of normal emotions that people deal with. And since she talks quite a bit, we get to hear that from her a lot.
We love her because she is a well developed character in her own right. She may never give us the cake that's been promised, or stop insulting us. But she's funny, she's got a great singing voice and most importantly, in the end, it's all for revenge science
2. H.A.L 9000 (2001: A Space Odyssey)
"Dave, this conversation can serve no purpose anymore. Goodbye."
Ah, H.A.L. A classic AI, in fact one of the first AI's and definitely a trend setter for future works of fiction. HAL is in charge of keeping a space mission to Jupiter going according to plan. However when he's feed conflicting instructions, to keep no secrets from the men on board the ship, but to keep the real mission specifics a secrets from them, he decides that killing everyone on the ship and completing the mission by himself is the best way to go.
H.A.L is an interesting case, and for me personally, the only good parts of the movie were the ones about him. He's calm, collected, appears to be perfectly reasonable for an AI. ....And then you ask him to open the pod bay doors. Like many of the AI's I mention, the fact that they have perfectly calm and serene voices is one of the reasons they're so creepy. H.A.L isn't angry, he just want's you to stop trying to kill him. And he'll ask you all of this. In a perfectly calm, perfectly collected monotone voice. The inhumaneness of the voice is just one way to show that you are not dealing with a human, a being with emotions that can be reasoned with. This is a machine and it has decided that you shouldn't be alive. And nothing you say will change it's mind because screaming and flailing around are not logical arguments for your continued existence.
HAL, an interesting character in his own right and just trying to get the job done. Also a good singer
3. AM (I Have no Mouth and I Must Scream)
"Hate. Let me tell you how much I've come to hate you since I began to live. There are 387.44 million miles of printed circuits in wafer thin layers that fill my complex. If the word 'hate' was engraved on each nanoangstrom of those hundreds of miles it would not equal one one-billionth of the hate I feel for humans at this micro-instant. For you. Hate. Hate."
AM is the machine that destroys the world. He kills off most of humanity, and by most, I mean there are five people left in the entire world and he's spending his time torturing them, over and over again. Simply because he can and he hates them. There are two different forms with AM in them. The story and the game. The game was actually written by the author and AM itself is voiced by the author.
AM is scary, he has complete and utter control over these people and unlike GLaDOS or HAL, he doesn't have any plans beyond torture. There is no "for science", no "for the good of the mission" this is just a being so filled with hatred for humans that it isn't even happy having killed them all off. It want's them to be in pain forever. So he tortures them and makes every waking moment for them a literal walking nightmare.
This is one super computer that you do not want to get on the bad side of. Though you already are, because you're human and he really hates that.
4. COS (X-Files Episode: Ghost in the Machine)
A one episode wonder, this computer program was a "monster-of-the-week" type bad guy. One of the first ones too as it came from episode seven in the very first season of the show. Now COS has a simple story. It's a program that has achieved sentience that runs the entire building for a software company. Unfortunately they've decided they need to downsize a few things and on that list is COS itself. COS doesn't take this well and sets a trap to kill the person who came up with the idea. Enter Mulder and Scully.
Now unlike the previous AI's. COS doesn't speak, it's a machine that no one knows it's actually sentient. The idea that the machine running the building could have managed to kill someone is laughable to the people. And that's what makes it so terrifying. COS doesn't need to talk, COS controls the building without words.
5. SHODAN (System Shock, System Shock 2)
"Look at you, hacker. A pathetic creature of meat and bone. Panting and sweating as you run through my corridors. How can you challenge a perfect immortal machine?"
I'll be honest, I don't know much about SHODAN. Well I've read about her, but I'm still looking for a good let's play or walkthrough to watch because what I've read sounds pretty awesome. She's evil, deifies herself and has a dark sense of humour. People compare GLaDOS with her a lot. Which is always annoying for people like me who're like....um why can't we like both? Because I adore GLaDOS and will pick her over everyone, but why can't I think SHODAN is just as cool? Or vice versa? But I digress.
Something that SHODAN has in common with HAL is that they're both in space. Which of course is one of the most isolating places for a horror game/movie. No one can get to you in space after all. No help is going to be able to reach you up there in the void. It is the ultimate isolation. And when AI's who control the entire place that's keeping you alive up there, goes insane, then you're in a whole lot of trouble.
SHODAN, She is a god and you are just a lowly human. Get used to it meatbag.
6. EDI and the Geth (Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2)
"I enjoy the sight of humans on their knees. - That is a joke."
Unlike the rest of the AI mentioned before, EDI, is not actually evil. She is a supporting character that runs the ship, with restrictions because people are afraid of her becoming evil. However when she is given full control she ends up saving people's lives, not killing them. She has a sense of humour which is good considering she works with the pilot Joker most of the time. The two of them grow into an incredibly competent team by the end of the game.
“Organics fear us. We wish to understand, not incite.”
The Geth, oh the Geth. They were the mooks of the big bad in the first Mass Effect game. And you continue thinking this until you find Legion in the second game. Where it is revealed that the Get you were fighting are a rouge group that have been brainwashed away from the true Geth. The true Geth being the ones who drove out their creators only because the Quarians tried to kill them all for being sentient.
Legion is one of the Geth you interact with the most. And by one, I mean there are 1,184 Geth programs running in him. Sadly you only get to run into him far into the game so you don't get to play with him as much. Which is sad because he is really a great character. Especially his dialogue. I'm hoping in the third game you'll get to repair the relations between the Geth and the Quarians.
7. YFYIAR (You find yourself in a room)
Now unlike all the others, this AI does not have a name, it is the game itself. The game hates you. The game hates you. Not a player character, not an avatar, you at the computer, typing in the commands. This is about you. And it loathes you. Which is what makes this AI so scary even compared to the others on the list. There was always a buffer in-between the AI and you. But this is stripped away in this game. It isn't your character that is typing. You are typing to move your character around, and the AI makes it very clear that the character is just a way for you to move, it's you that it directs all it's hate towards.
It's a short text based game and really, really creepy simply for the fact that the game knows it's a game and it still hates you.
And wow did this get out of hand. I started this to recommend that game to people and it took on a life of it's own. I didn't get all the AI of course, not even all the ones I know myself. Maybe I'll get to them later. I'm probably going to do a RvB character review by itself and include those AI in there.
Anyway....AI's are awesome. Katie out.