Are There Examples of Good A.I.'s?

I know there are, but I can’t think of many.

This is inspired by Agents of SHIELD doing ANOTHER “we made an AI and oops it’s bad” storyline. It bugs me that every time someone makes an AI it inevitably becomes evil. Surely that didn’t happen every single time, so what examples of AIs that never went evil? (btw one-offs where they were possessed or whatever doesn’t count…I mean on the whole). I can think of only 2:

Data from Star Trek
EDI from Mass Effect

Was Robbie the Robot good? or even an AI? What about the dude from Lost in Space?

The Holodoc from Voyager (who even, to a certain extent, transcended his programming).

If you’re open to books, the Minds from Iain M. Banks Culture novels are pretty much the gold standard of “good” AIs. With a few exceptions.

Adam Selene
Athena, Dora, Gay Deceiver and all the others Lazarus deals with

Heck, I think every AI Heinlein wrote was “good.” He wouldn’t tolerate sloppy programming.

Multivac in various Isaac Asimov stories (most notably in “The Last Question”), as well as his robot stories.

Adam Link
The robot in Henry Kuttner’s Gallagher stories.

I’m sure Exapno Mapcase will be along with many more.

What distinction are you making that Robbie the Robot would not be AI? Any device programmed to analyze inputs and make decisions based on that input would count as some small level of artificial intelligence. You can quibble about the lower end (is Eliza AI?) but almost all the robots found in science fiction would unquestionably count as AI.

So, to start you off, good AI, off the top of my head:

C.H.O.M.P.S in C.H.O.M.P.S, D.A.R.Y.L in D.A.R.Y.L, V.I.C.I in Small Wonder, Johnny 5 in Short Circuit, Eve from Mann & Machine, the robot cops from Almost Human, most of the robots from A.I., most of the robots from Wall-E, Bishop from Aliens, Call from Alien Resurrection, and I’m barely scratching the surface here.

Vision from the Marvel Universe

In Star Wars: Artoo, Threepio, and BB-8

Bishop in Aliens acts admirably; setting up the communications with the ship, rescuing Ripley and saving Newt from being blown out the airlock (after he was torn in half).

Granted, he’s intended to counterpoint the actions of the android Ash in the previous film.

Also a vast number of examples from anime and manga, but I’ll list only 3 from the top of my head that are well worth checking out. All AIs in Yokohama Kaidashi Kiko and in Eve no Jikan and some of the AIs in Ergo Proxy.

“Mike” from The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress was the first one that came to my mind.

I have to wonder how much classic SF the OP has read, if he’s asking a question like this.

Those rectangular robots in Interstellar.

Agent Hymie on Get Smart!

I took the opening question to refer to recent filmed entertainment. If so, there may be a measurable trend in recent years to show AI as ‘dangerous’–or there may not. But that would be a separate question from ‘how is AI treated in all forms of storytelling over time?’ or the like.

Likewise, HAL in 2010 redeems himself. Although he was never bad, so much as the victim of conflicted programming (and no 3 laws of robotics, apparently).

Absolutely literally none.

This is closer to what I was getting at. More along the lines of film and not books. Although I did cheat by throwing a video game in my own examples. But I definitely probably should have said “in film” in the title.

Yeah, this is what I was thinking of…it’s been awhile since I’ve seen it, but I seem to recall that a lot of the ones we saw in that film were pretty sympathetic (as they were terrified, hunted, and tortured by people). Although the main character, the kid, on the surface seems very sad and you sort of naturally feel bad for him…his programming does lead him to some very dangerous places unintentionally. I mean, at the end of the movie he essentially destroys his “mother’s” soul (and the last remnant of humanity?) just to spend another day with an idealized version of her. And he’s really, obliviously, ecstatic to do it, IIRC. It seems saccharine on the surface and the movie gets criticized for tacking on a “happy” ending, but it’s actually in my opinion a pretty horrifying act.

The Machine from Person of Interest was pretty good; mostly because she was raised right.

Contrast with Samaritan, from the same show.

Eddie, Your Shipboard Computer from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was a good guy, and helpful (if annoying). Marvin was also good, despite his chronic depression and the terrible pain in all the diodes down his left side.

Rem from the TV series version of Logan’s Run.

The Robot from Lost in Space.

The original Robbie the Robot from Forbidden Planet.

Arguably, Machine from the film The Machine.

Clyde from Black Road.

The thing with Ash was not that he was a good AI that flipped to evil for inexplicable reasons. Rather, he was given an explicit directive (Special Order 937) by Weyland-Yutani to retrieve the xenomorph, even if it meant wiping out the crew (whether deliberately or as collateral damage). Knowing of SO 937, his attempt on Ripley’s life was entirely predictable.

Tron.