HAL 9000 is a fictional artificial intelligence character and the main antagonist in Arthur C. Clarke's Space Odyssey series. First appearing in the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, HAL is a sentient artificial general intelligence computer that controls the systems of the Discovery One spacecraft and interacts with the ship's astronaut crew. While part of HAL's hardware is shown toward the end of the film, he is mostly depicted as a camera lens containing a red and yellow dot, with such units located throughout the ship. HAL 9000 is voiced by Douglas Rain in the two feature film adaptations of the Space Odyssey series. HAL speaks in a soft, calm voice and a conversational manner, in contrast to the crewmen, David Bowman and Frank Poole.
HAL faceplate (from a museum exhibition)
A loose replica of HAL 9000 on exhibit at the Carnegie Science Center
Artificial intelligence in fiction
Artificial intelligence is a recurrent theme in science fiction, whether utopian, emphasising the potential benefits, or dystopian, emphasising the dangers.
A didrachm coin depicting the winged Talos, an automaton or artificial being in ancient Greek myth, c. 300 BC
Brent Spiner portrayed the benevolent AI Data in Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Robots revolt in Karel Čapek's 1920 science fiction play R.U.R.
Some fictional robots such as R2-D2 have been seen as utopian, making them popular with engineers and others. In 2015, All Nippon Airways unveiled this Boeing 787-9 in R2-D2 livery.
