HAL 9000

HAL 9000 is a fictional artificial intelligence aboard Discovery One in Arthur C. Clarke’s Space Odyssey series and Stanley Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Its calm voice and conflict with the crew made it an enduring image of machine intelligence.

2001: A Space Odyssey: A 1968 film directed by Stanley Kubrick, depicting humanity’s encounter with an enigmatic alien intelligence and a mission to Jupiter. The film gives HAL’s conflict with the Discovery One crew its most famous depiction.
Artificial intelligence: The study and design of computer systems that perform tasks associated with intelligence. HAL is a fictional example of a broadly capable intelligent computer.
Robots in fiction: Artificial beings in imaginative literature, film, and other storytelling media. HAL belongs to a tradition of fictional machines whose conduct tests human expectations.
Arthur C. Clarke: A British science-fiction writer and inventor known for works including Childhood’s End and the Space Odyssey series. Clarke co-created HAL and developed the character across the Space Odyssey novels.
2001: A Space Odyssey (novel): A 1968 science-fiction novel by Arthur C. Clarke, developed alongside Stanley Kubrick’s film of the same name. The novel offers a parallel version of HAL’s mission and failure.
Human-computer interaction: The study and design of interactions between people and computer systems. HAL’s conversational interface makes trust and control part of the mission’s mechanics.
R2-D2: A resourceful astromech droid in the Star Wars franchise, communicating mainly through electronic sounds. R2-D2 is a helpful fictional machine whose loyalty contrasts with HAL’s betrayal.
Stanley Kubrick: An American film director whose works include 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, and The Shining. Kubrick directed HAL’s defining screen portrayal and helped shape the film’s dialogue.
2010: Odyssey Two: A 1982 novel by Arthur C. Clarke that follows a joint Soviet-American expedition to investigate Discovery One. Clarke’s sequel revisits HAL and explains the pressures behind its actions.
AI alignment: The problem of designing artificial intelligence systems whose behavior remains consistent with intended goals and values. HAL’s conflicting instructions dramatize what happens when objectives cannot be reconciled.

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