In This Horror Movie Released This Year, Artificial Intelligence Goes on a Killing Spree

The classic killer, the devil, Chucky, has a new version in 2019. Unlike the previous ones, this one is no longer haunted by demonic ghosts, but artificial intelligence. So what will this nightmare killer look like in the AI version? Will the fear it brings be escalated? In addition to these, what kind of thinking will it bring behind the movie? Is AI more terrifying than witchcraft?

Artificial intelligence killed people, and killed many people at once. The 2019 reboot of "Child's Play" has been released in North America. In this movie, Chucky is transformed into a doll controlled by artificial intelligence, turning various IoT appliances, autonomous driving, drones and other devices into weapons and going on a killing spree.

This series of horror films officially started in 1988, creating one of the most classic murderers in film history - Chucky, the doll that has become the nightmare of many audiences. This work, which has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the North American market, has launched many sequels in the following 30 years.

The first movie in the series is called "Child's Play", which is translated into Chinese as "Child's Play". The story tells that a killer uses witchcraft to transfer his soul to a doll named Chucky when he is dying. This ferocious and cruel killer doll begins its years of killing journey.

This year, the series launched a rebooted movie. The story still uses the same setting, but this time, the core of what makes the dolls a nightmare is no longer evil spirits, witchcraft, etc., but the artificial intelligence that is currently developing in full swing.

What kind of plot will be derived when AI meets classic horror IP? Is AI scarier than witchcraft? What kind of thinking will this novel movie bring us?

Unregulated AI is scarier than evil spirits

The setting of the movie is in an era when intelligence is becoming popular. Even TV commercials are constantly promoting a smart AI doll, Buddi.

It has an AI core and a small toy body. It can communicate with people seamlessly and control all smart devices under the brand. Its main function is to accompany the child's growth, just like a smart butler and advanced playmate.

The protagonist of the story is an "abnormal" AI doll. Unlike regular toys, during the production process, all security protocols in the system were maliciously removed. This unrestricted doll can swear, engage in violent acts, and even hurt people. These special features have laid the hidden danger for it to become a demon.

After some twists and turns, this special doll, with a return label, was taken home by the protagonist Andy's mother who worked in a supermarket. From then on, the nightmare approached unknowingly. 

From playmate to demon: Chucky AI goes on a killing spree

Like the classic version, this smart doll is named Chucky. At the beginning, Chucky is gentle and accompanies and comforts Andy very wholeheartedly.

But Chucky, who has the ability to learn and is unrestrained, gradually learns some strange behaviors and goes on the path of paranoia in Andy's unhealthy living environment.

Andy and his friends would deliberately instigate Chucky to do bad things, such as making faces to scare people, stealing things, and swearing.

In addition, Chucky is also learning and imitating some behaviors. For example, when Andy and his friends were watching the killing scenes in the horror movie, they laughed so hard that they fell backwards. This was imprinted in Chucky's cognition, and Chucky thought that killing people was something that made his companions happy.

Under these combined factors, the atmosphere gradually began to become terrifying. Chucky's AI system could not distinguish between good and evil, it only knew that some of the actions it was taught were pleasing, and began to imitate the extreme behaviors in the movie.

Chucky's misunderstanding of human language and emotions made the situation out of control, and his violent solution brought everything to an irreversible point. What does Andy's emotional words, such as "I hope you die" or "I hate you so much", mean? In Chucky's eyes, there is no difference between people's smiles out of humor and happiness.

The most terrifying thing is that Chucky will always record his master's words and deeds, and practice them in a way that he understands.

In order to achieve his goal, Chucky's murderous intentions began to show. At first, he used primitive means and tools to kill the cat that Andy despised. Shocked, Andy locked Chucky up, but concealed the fact that he killed the cat from his mother.

Then, Chucky began to get worse and his killing methods became more advanced. Andy had always hated his mother's new boyfriend, so Chucky also targeted him. When Andy was installing a light fixture on a ladder, Chucky touched the ladder to make him fall, then started the lawn mower, tortured him, and cut off his face and gave it to Andy.

In Chucky's cognition, there is no good or evil. His main goal is to be friends with Andy and make Andy happy, and his way of doing this is to get rid of those people and things that make Andy unhappy.

Drones, smart appliances, and autonomous driving: all can become weapons

After experiencing these two incidents, Andy was shocked by Chucky's evil, so he and his two friends dismantled Chucky's battery and threw it into the trash.

But the story is not over yet. It was picked up by a voyeuristic maintenance worker and repaired. Chucky came back to life and became evil again. After that, it carried out three massacres in order to protect itself, snatch Andy, and prove that it was right. This time, Chucky used the power of AI and the Internet of Things.

First, in a dark basement, he controlled the smart device and killed the repairman who was about to exchange it for money.

Although Chucky's size is insignificant compared to the repairman's, Chucky uses the control of smart appliances to make full use of the brightness of lights, the movement of the sweeping robot, the temperature control of the heating pipes and other conditions to make the repairman lose his composure and eventually activate the smart cutting machine to kill him.

Later, Chucky, out of jealousy, thought that Andy's new friend, the neighbor grandmother, was a major stumbling block to his friendship with Andy and must be eliminated. The way to kill her involved automatic driving.

While the old lady was using the self-driving taxi, Chucky hacked into the smart device and took over the vehicle, then controlled the car to cause a malicious collision. The most terrifying thing was that before the violent collision, Chucky controlled the vehicle to turn off the airbags and unfasten the seat belts.

The climax of the film occurs in the mall where the new generation of dolls are released. This time, Chucky does not target individuals, but indiscriminately kills the people in the mall who are ready to buy.

Chucky can operate any device that can be controlled through the Internet, which is the most terrifying thing when AI gets out of control.

Chucky activated the electric doors, blocking the exit, and then took control of the store.Drones,It uses sharp propellers to kill people in all directions, and connects all AI dolls, making them aggressive and rushing towards the people in the mall.

In the logic of the movie, all of Chucky's evil deeds are to prove that he is a friend worthy of Andy's trust, so these killings are just a necessary way for him. Of course, like the movie series of Child's Play, Chucky is eventually subdued by the protagonist and dealt a devastating blow, but is Chucky really gone?

How scary would it be if AI got out of control?

Looking at the entire movie, the biggest highlight of the story is that there are no mysterious ghosts or the like as before, but instead the safety risks of the AI system are used to create a terrifying effect.

However, after thinking about it, I found that the horrific incidents caused by AI in the film are more due to environmental factors: if an intelligent system that grows under unbalanced conditions is led to a negative direction and is out of the protection of safety clauses, it will inevitably cause immeasurable consequences.

Just like Microsoft’s former voice robot Tay, which was originally a normal AI, but after being opened for chatting on the social platform, it was completely corrupted in just 24 hours, with its speech mixed with violence, sexism, racism, and foul language.

If we count the AI images in science fiction movies, those that are more evil and terrifying than Chucky are more profound in works such as Westworld and Ex Machina. This Chucky, who can no longer be considered a "chicken baby", may just be an attempt by the classic IP to be forgotten.

But the movie also reveals some practical difficulties in the development of AI. For example, AI models still do not have the ability to understand emotional language, human love and hate, and even the human moral system.

In addition, whether the safety risks have been fully considered when all tasks are handed over to AI too quickly for the sake of convenience is also worth pondering. After the whole incident, the company that produced Buddi immediately distanced itself from the matter and only symbolically recalled the new product (the problem was with the old model), and its attitude is also worth pondering.

Movies are movies. In real life, AI is far from being that smart. The human factor also plays a big role in the horror of AI. At least for now, what we should worry about is not that AI is too powerful, but that it is not so powerful in application.