Pop culture has always been fascinated by the possibilities of technology. As creative fodder, tech sometimes inspires utopian visions (think The Jetsons or Star Trek), but more often it sparks dystopian warnings (think Black Mirror or Jurassic Park). Sci-fi as a genre has been especially rich with thought-provoking stories of how new technology can lead to unforeseen results.
AI (or AGI, rather) is a technology with a long history in pop culture, perhaps going back to HAL 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). The dramatic potential of “smart” humanoid robots really kicked off in the 1980s, with movies like Blade Runner (1982) and The Terminator (1984).
Sci-fi as a genre has been especially rich with thought-provoking stories of how new technology can lead to unforeseen results.
But since then, and especially in the 21st century, the AI-inspired movie plot has become commonplace. These aren’t just “robots are going to outsmart and kill us!” movies (though I did enjoy M3GAN’s campy killer robot doll plot). They’re explorations of how AI is transforming our conceptions of human identity, relationships, and mortality.
Here are six movies (and one TV series) that offer timely food for thought about a rapidly growing technology we’re all trying to wrap our minds around.
A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)
Originally conceived by Stanley Kubrick but ultimately realized by Steven Spielberg, A.I. is a remarkably prescient film that celebrates its 25th anniversary this summer. The film’s Pinocchio-inspired plot explores the consciousness of a robot boy (Haley Joel Osment) adopted by a human family to be a companion “sibling.” It ponders the possibility of “imprinting” artificial intelligence with the capacity for humanlike love and emotion. The consequences (especially in the film’s “2,000 years later” coda) are haunting to consider. Available to rent.
The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist (2026)
The newest release on this list (out this weekend in theaters) is a documentary codirected and largely narrated by Daniel Roher, an Oscar winner for his 2022 documentary Navalny. Framed from the perspective of Roher wondering whether he’s bringing his first child into the world at a fortuitous or calamitous time, The AI Doc considers AGI’s best- and worst-case scenarios. Will it revolutionize health and medicine, rapidly increasing life expectancies, or will it usher in the apocalypse? The extreme possibilities make for dizzying, sometimes mind-melting viewing. And while it’s short on answers, the documentary captures the topic’s bigness and extremely high stakes—however things turn out. In theaters now.
Eternal You (2024)
This straightforwardly dystopian documentary explores the darker possibilities of AI “resurrecting” dead loved ones and creating simulations of consciousness that theoretically allow someone to “live on” after death. As creepy and unsettling as you’d expect, Eternal You exposes the “digital afterlife” industry and challenges us to think ahead to the ways AI might feed transhumanist delusions and provide weird, spiritually dangerous, séance-style opportunities to communicate with the dead (a topic also explored in the next film on this list). It sounds like a bleak episode of Black Mirror, but it’s real. Available to rent.
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die (2026)
Though Gore Verbinski’s dark comedy is crass and violent (rated R), it’s also the sort of bonkers vision of AI dystopia that might cause viewers to think twice about the tech they use. The film’s time-travel plot (a sort of riff on Groundhog Day or The Edge of Tomorrow) follows a man sent from the future (Sam Rockwell) to put AI safeguards into place before it’s too late. Ultimately, the film is less about possible calamitous futures than it is about our already entrenched bad habits. If AI induces the apocalypse, the film suggests, it’ll be a natural result of society’s decades-long complicity in “scrolling ourselves to death” tech addiction. Available to rent. Note: Rated R for language and violence.
Her (2013)
The futuristic world depicted in Her—Spike Jonze’s movie about a lonely man (Joaquin Phoenix) who falls in love with his AI companion phone (voiced by Scarlett Johansson)—felt far off when the movie came out in 2013. But in 2026, the premise isn’t at all far-fetched. Consider the reality that AI companions are already mainstreamed among teenagers and that OpenAI even briefly used a reconstruction of Johansson’s voice for its AI assistant “Sky.” It won’t be long before AI-human romances aren’t just a movie plot but a normal relationship status. Available to rent. Note: Rated R for language and sexual content.
Pluribus (2025)
The new series from Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan is arguably the most original show currently on TV. The Apple TV+ series draws from alien-invasion tropes and pandemic disaster films (think Contagion), but mostly it’s a commentary on AI. Though I hesitate to recommend it due to some sexual material and brief nudity, Pluribus is the most thought-provoking narrative in pop culture grappling with AI. I particularly appreciate how it captures the creepy dynamics of AI’s always smiling, sycophantic posture (always wanting to please, never willing to say no). The dystopian show illustrates that to live in a world like this, where AI servants constantly aspire to give you whatever you want, would be closer to hell than heaven. Watch on Apple TV+.
The Thinking Game (2025)
While biased in a pro-AI direction, this documentary about Google DeepMind (and founder/CEO Demis Hassabis) is nevertheless fascinating as a chronicle of the current “arms race” toward AGI. It’s really something to witness the breakthrough moments of a nascent technology that has already solved previously unsolvable problems in chemistry and could end up being as revolutionary for humans as electricity or fire. Watch on Prime Video.
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