The stunning evolution of AI in movies – Looper

In 1951, movie audiences were introduced to a future classic in The Day The Earth Stood Still. At the start of this black and white film, a flying saucer lands in Washington D.C. and reveals a stoic defender in the robot Gort. This extremely powerful AI capable of turning our military's weapons to dust is entirely under the control of an alien named Klaatu. Throughout most of the film, Gort simply stands guard over the spacecraft while the story unravels elsewhere. By this point in time, audiences had seen such technological advances as radar and the atomic bomb. The concept of controlling an intelligent robot was no longer unimaginable or ludicrous. If anything, it was kind of cool.

The Day the Earth Stood Stilldepicts artificial intelligenceas a guardian that can be controlled and used for good, although this isn't immediately apparent in the plot. It isn't until the end of the film that Gort is given his commands and scoops up his master before departing Earth. The movie demonstrates a wonderfully diverse view of AI in both how it could be used in the right hands and how it would be perceived by its enemies. It's also shown as a device that can be used to achieve goals our fleshy bodies aren't capable of reaching alone but one without character or emotion. It would be more than two decades until the world would be transported to a galaxy far, far away and introduced to the lively robotic antics of two cultural icons.

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The stunning evolution of AI in movies - Looper