Year-ender | 5 times Artificial Intelligence took centre stage in movies and TV in 2023

The year 2023 will go down as the year of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Everyone was trying to figure out how to deal with ChatGPT and the others, and this affected the entertainment industry as well. Artificial Intelligence was a major sticking point in the twin strikes that shut down Hollywood for nearly half the year. And James Cameron, arguably the most tech-forward creator in Hollywood, said “I warned you guys in 1984, and you didn’t listen.” referring to his Terminator movies and the Skynet system that triggers a nuclear war and causes an apocalypse.

But that didn’t stop the creative minds in Hollywood from doing what they do best, telling stories about Artificial Intelligence. Usually villainous, sometimes benevolent, and almost always mysterious, AI was at the center of a lot of the entertainment we watched this year. Here are some of the movies and television shows that grappled with the threat of AI in 2023.

The Creator
(Available for rent or purchase on Apple TV, Google Play, YouTube)

Gareth Edwards took an admirable swing at an original big budget sci-fi movie. The Creator which centers on an all-out war between humanity and Artificial Intelligence is full of bold and provocative ideas that don’t quite coalesce. Both sides are on the hunt for Nirmata, the creator of Artificial Intelligence who has the power to destroy the world. The movie is a pastiche of styles and ideas, and doesn’t really become a fully fleshed out story by itself. Nevertheless, its explorations on the arguable personhood of Artificial Intelligence are ideas we should all think through as we navigate this new world we are in.

ALSO READ: The Creator review: Clumsy and clunky colonial critique crashes on impact

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1
(Available for rent or purchase on Apple TV, Google Play, YouTube)

Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt and the Impossible Mission Force take on the threat of Artificial Intelligence in the latest installment of this long-running franchise. The malevolent force here is called the Entity, and is served by Gabriel, its human henchman who is always one step ahead of our protagonist. The Entity controls everything electronic and our heroes have to go analog to fight it. Watch Cruise in a thrilling car chase through Rome while driving one-handed and handcuffed to Hayley Atwell, or running like only he can through the winding streets of Venice, or riding a motorcycle off a cliff and speed-flying (it’s a thing) into a train. It’s a nail-biting ride ending in a cliffhanger that will only be resolved in 2025.

Heart Of Stone
(Streaming on Netflix)

This spy thriller is the latest in a series of big-budget actioners like 6 Underground and Red Notice from Netflix, and maybe the first without Ryan Reynolds. Gal Gadot headlines this globetrotter about the Heart, an Artificial Intelligence system that powers the Charter, a clandestine peacekeeping agency. When evil forces try to capture the Heart, Gadot’s Rachel Stone races to save it and the future of the world as we know it. Indian audiences will enjoy this movie for Alia Bhatt’s hacker Keya in her Hollywood debut. The movie eventually follows story beats very similar to Netflix’s The Old Guard, which was also written by the same comic book writer, Greg Rucka.

A Murder At The End Of The World
(Streaming on Disney+ Hotstar)

The Crown’s first Princess Diana, Emma Corrin stars in this murder mystery thriller set in a remote futuristic location in Iceland. They play Darby, an amateur investigator and professional hacker, who gets caught up in a series of unexplained deaths at the retreat organised by billionaire Andy Ronson, an Elon Musk stand-in. Ronson is beta-testing his AI assistant, a human-presenting hologram called Ray, who has so far been a fairly good and benevolent AI, but there’s a sinister air about Ray that Darby can’t quite put her finger on.

Mrs. Davis
(Not streaming yet in India)

A nun, a cowboy, and Jesus Christ walk into a falafel joint… if you want to know how that joke ends, watch Mrs. Davis, from the mind of Damon Lindelof (Lost) and Tara Hernandez (The Big Bang Theory). The creators’ influences and interests are widely varied, and they come together in this wild and gonzo concoction that doesn’t always work, but always keeps the audience on its toes. Glow’s Betty Gilpin stars as Sister Simone, a nun tasked by her husband, Jesus Christ (yes, it’s actually him), to stop the titular AI system known as Mrs. Davis. And Mrs. Davis gives Simone a mission to find the Holy Grail; if she is successful then Mrs. Davis will turn itself off. To be honest, it’s even crazier than it sounds.