Runaway Robots in Hollywood

Should we fear artificial intelligence or embrace it? Our popular culture remains torn on the debate.

Whether humankind can create something that is self-aware is a question as old as mankind. Early history focused on making clay or stone come to life — the stone statue of Galatea that came to life in the original “Pygmalion,” or the golem of Jewish folklore.

It was Czech writer Karel Čapek’s 1921 play “R.U.R.” (“Rossum’s Universal Robots”) that gave us the word “robot” to describe human-like automatons. “Metropolis” (1927) offered a first glimpse of a robot as a creature that embodied our best characteristics.

In “The Wizard of Oz” (1939), a cinematic robot caught the public’s imagination, as the gentle, insecure Tin Woodman searched for a heart that, of course, he had had all along. This was certainly not a frightening artificial life or one born of a human who suffered a magical curse.

Far more ominous was the “Man Made Monster” (1941), in which the creature was created from an injured human, though this time the culprit was science and the victim ended up “an electro-biological man-creature hybrid.”

GORT, from “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” doesn’t have a concept of right or wrong.

One of the most important robots in all of cinema is GORT from the powerful anti-war film, “The Day the Earth Stood Still” (1951). GORT stands for Genetically Organized Robotic Technology, and it’s a mute defender of the alien life that visits Earth. GORT doesn’t talk or reason. It makes decisions and acts upon them. It’s also the first dangerous robot in cinema history that is portrayed as completely amoral: GORT has no concept of right or wrong.

The amorality of robots is further explored in Isaac Asimov’s seminal “Robot” books, in which the so-called Three Laws of Robots are introduced: A robot must not injure a human being, it must obey orders given by a human, and it must protect its own existence. But those stories are lesser known: It wasn’t until 2004 that “I, Robot,” published in 1950, made it into theaters.

There are few more ominous instances of Artificial Intelligence in film than the computer HAL in the epic “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968), and the genetically enhanced replicants in 1982’s “Blade Runner.” They’re not just amoral, they’re on a very human quest of their own to find their Maker and learn why they aren’t immortal.

The small screen served up a different spin on robots via Data, the humanoid creature who drew comparisons to Pinocchio on “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” Brent Spiner’s character longed to be human, to feel what we feel, and the series captured that arc in often profound ways. The robot chums in “Star Wars” offered a more straightforward angle: comic relief with occasional heroism for good measure.

A more complex amorality is shown by the robots in 1984’s “The Terminator,” in which the creatures have taken over as the dominant species and figured out how to travel back in time to prevent a human uprising. The image of the unstoppable Terminator robot (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is an iconic symbol of dangerous robots in contemporary culture.

We accept that robots are going to be “more human than human,” whether they’re sexy (2015’s “Ex Machina”) or simply far tougher (2015’s “Terminator Genisys”). Perhaps they’ll have lives of their own and their own motivations for acting, like Eve and Wall-E from the animated “Wall-E” (2008), or be naive and child-like, exhibiting the innocence of “Chappie” (2015).

There are occasional throwbacks to non-self-aware robots in recent cinema, too, like “Real Steel” (2011). But for every mindless automata, there’s a frighteningly amoral recurrence of dangerous AI, such as David (Michael Fassbender) from “Prometheus” (2012).

What will we end up with? The sweet, trustworthy robots of “Big Hero 6” (2014), the warm, inviting AI of “Her” (2013), or the amoral Ava (actor Alicia Vikander) from “Ex Machina” (2015)?

Stick around. I suspect we’ll find out sooner than we want.