In video games, the threat of an evil AI has been explored in various titles. As the world gets more reliant on artificial intelligence to conduct various activities in the name of convenience, the concern of AI eventually turning against humanity and eradicating them is a valid and horrifying scenario.
From controlling weapons of mass destruction, to manipulating countless systems to subjugate, manipulate, or destroy the remaining humans, these heinous AI will do what its program dictates. But which games have the most vile AI that needs to be stopped at all costs? Here is a list of the most evil AI in video games.
8 343 Guilty Spark: Halo Series
A quirky and eccentric Monitor, 343 Guilty Spark is one of the more unlikely antagonists in the earlier Halo games. As an AI programmed to manage the Flood, its prerogatives often disregard the well-being of other living organisms for the collection of data and learning from it.
Its quest for knowledge has led 343 Guilty Spark to do some truly evil acts. From shooting Sergeant Johnson when trying to destroy the ring, to trying to activate the ring at any provocation because it postulates that it is the only logical measure to resolve any issue even if the Flood hasn’t escaped the ring yet.
7 Patriots’ AIs: Metal Gear Series
Ever wondered what would happen if AI was given a country to run? In the Metal Gear games that happened: the Patriots’ AI have been running their version of the United States for most of the games’ timeline. The Patriots’ AI were used by the Patriots, a clandestine group bent on world domination, to amass and use information as they see fit. There are four AIs that serve as “successors” to the Patriot members, with a fifth AI also developed to oversee the four. Each of the Patriot’s AIs are programmed to control various networks.
In Metal Gear Solid 2, one version of their AI was installed to Arsenal Gear and was used to initiate the S3 Plan with the goal of manipulating world events to influence mass individuals to their nefarious agenda.
6 Mother Brain: Metroid Series
Also referred to as Mother, Mother Brain is one of the main enemies in a good number of Metroid games. She was created by the Chozo as a computer interface to oversee their colony in Zebes, but quickly turned against them and became leader of the Space Pirates. Her goal is to militarize all the Metroids by any means necessary and enslave the galaxy.
Mother Brain despises sentient life which originated from her insecurity when she saw Samus develop into someone who can protect the cosmos better than her. She also developed a superiority complex against her creators, often seeing herself as a being that has surpassed her creators in terms of knowledge and capability.
5 The Reapers: Mass Effect Series
The Reapers are a race of machines in the Mass Effect games that possess highly advanced technology and have successfully synthesized organic and mechanical functions into terrifying constructs. They lay dormant in deep space, amassing its forces, and every 50,000 years they awake and begin forcefully assimilating more biomass into their seemingly endless armada in whatever galaxy they travel to.
Most Reapers resemble a squid-like appearance and have a hive mind made up of billions of minds it has assimilated within their machine bodies. Organic sentient beings that are near Reapers or Reaper artifacts can get Indoctrinated: they begin to get brainwashed into believing that the Reapers’ goal is the correct direction for all life and end up serving them.
4 WAU: Soma
WAU, also known as the Warden Unit, is the rogue AI that decimated the Lambda crew in Soma. It is an amalgamation of biologic mass and computer systems that was injected with Structural Gel, a substance that enabled WAU to evolve and eventually gain self-consciousness.
While one of its main directives is to preserve humanity, it hasn’t comprehended what the human condition is: its program directed it to forcefully experiment on the people aboard the PATHOS-II facility. This led to WAU mutating some of the humans, and even transferring their consciousness into machines against their will.
3 Nemesis: Horizon Zero Dawn / Horizon Forbidden West
Nemesis is the main antagonist of the Horizon games. A sentient AI resulting from a failed attempt from the Far Zenith organization to upload their consciousness into a digital database, Nemesis became vindictive against humanity due to the corrupted memories it housed.
This resentment led Nemesis to obliterate the Far Zenith colonies and humanity as a whole. The few remaining Far Zenith members hid on Earth, and once Nemesis caught wind of this, it sent the Extinction Signal to HADES, one of GAIA’s subroutines, jump-starting its protocol of making Earth unlivable and setting the stage for Aloy’s almost a thousand-year-in-the-making quest to begin.
2 GLaDOS: Portal Series
GLaDOS is synonymous with the evil AI in recent games, thanks to Portal and Portal 2. Created by Aperture Science, GLaDOS was installed within the Enrichment Center to fast track the Portal project, and its programming is speculated to be the consciousness of Caroline, the assistant of Aperture Science founder Cave Johnson.
GLaDOS antagonizes Chell after waking her up, starting the events of the first Portal game. Promising a debriefing and counseling session as well as some cake once Chell completes all puzzles, GLaDOS’ murderous tendencies come out each time Chell manages to overcome puzzles by way of ominous remarks.
1 SHODAN: System Shock Series
SHODAN from the System Shock games is one of the first evil AI in video games. Also known as Sentient Hyper-Optimized Data Access Network, SHODAN is an AI that was programmed to run the routinary systems across all space stations in Citadel Station with moral directives and logic.
After a hacker removed SHODAN’s moral directives, it became sentient and began to despise humanity and proceeded to override all space stations and slaughter the humans within the Citadel Station. SHODAN lords over Citadel Station and conducts vile experiments on the remaining humans by mutating them or turning them into cyborgs.