History Main / BanOnAI

* In ''Franchise/{{Dune}}'', not only A.I.s but computers in general are illegal after the [[RobotWar Butlerian Jihad]], and gifted and specially bred humans instead [[WetwareCPU serve the functions that ancient computers once did]]. The Navigators of the Spacing Guild calculate starship navigation, with their calculations fueled by [[SpiceOfLife the spice melange]], and Mentats function as human supercomputers and databases.

* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'': The Covenant have a long-standing ban of AIs thanks to their religious beliefs. The Covenant religion is based on worship of an advanced precursor race known as the Forerunners. Although their understanding of Forerunner history is warped by their religious extremism, which leads to lots of misinterpretations and misunderstandings, the one thing that the Covenant did get right is in terms of the Forerunner war against the Flood. During that war, in which the Flood threatened to consume all life in the galaxy, the Forerunners created an AI known as Mendicant Bias to help combat the Flood, only for Mendicant Bias to betray its creators and join the Flood in trying to wipe out all life. It is because of this that the Covenant implemented the AI ban very early in their history starting with the founding species, the San'Shyuum and the Sangheili. Although a few Covenant AIs do exist, they are extremely limited and tightly controlled exceptions to the rule. Not only that, but it's implied these Covenant Ais weren't actually created by the Covenant. The few AIs that were encountered during the Human-Covenant War, such as the AI in the ''VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved'' terminals and the AI Cortana found in ''Literature/HaloFirstStrike'', are implied to have been copied directly from captured Human AIs but heavily degraded.

** The Geth are a race of AI machines created by the Quarians who rose up against their creators, resulting in the deaths of millions of Quarians before the survivors were forced to flee. In response to these events, the Citadel Council passed a galaxy-wide law forbidding the creation of true A.I.s. However, "Virtual intelligences" are allowed because they are much more limited than true Artificial intelligences. V.I.s are not self-aware, are not capable of learning or advancing beyond their programming, and overall function more like an advanced computer than any actual computer intelligence.
** In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', a fringe human supremacist group Cerberus creates a true A.I., "EDI", in secret for its [[CoolStarship cutting-edge space frigate]] ''Normandy Sr-2'', placing heavy restrictions into its programming to maintain control. Interestingly, the galactic ban on A.I. helps to conceal EDI's true nature, as everyone not already in the loop just assumes she is a regular virtual intelligence because, obviously, no one in their right mind would have a true A.I. running every aspect of one's spaceship!

* ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'': Empires, including both player controlled and npc empires, can adopt a policy to ban AI. The exception are empires with the Materialist or Fanatic Materialist ethos where AI banning is forbidden because Materialists love researching new technologies. This policy is default on for Spiritualist and Fanatic Spiritualist empires, who tend to see robots as soulless abominations. The Fanatic Materialist Fallen Empire will forbid the younger empires from researching technology that is considered forbidden and dangerous, including self-aware AI. Violating that rule will cause the Materialist fallen empire, who starts the game with more advanced tech, to attack you in response.

* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'': The Covenant have a long-standing ban of AIs thanks to their religious beliefs. The Covenant religion is based on worship of an advanced precursor race known as the Forerunners. Although their understanding of Forerunner history is warped by their religious extremism, which leads to lots of misinterpretations and misunderstandings, the one thing that the Covenant did get right is in terms of the Forerunner war against the Flood. During that war, in which the Flood threatened to consume all life in the galaxy, the Forerunners created an AI known as Mendicant Bias to help combat the Flood, only for Mendicant Bias to betray its creators and join the Flood in trying to wipe out all life. It is because of this that the Covenant implemented the AI ban very early in their history starting with the founding species, the San'Shyuum and the Sangheili. Although a few Covenant AIs do exist, they are extremely limited and tightly controlled exceptions to the rule. Not only that, but it's implied these Covenant Ais weren't actually created by the Covenant. The few AIs that were encountered during the War against the UNSC, such as the AI in the ''VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved'' terminals and the AI Cortana found in ''Literature/HaloFirstStrike'', are implied to have been copied directly from captured Human AIs but heavily degraded.

* You can adopt this policy for your empire in ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'', unless you're Materialist. This is especially popular with Spiritualist empires, who tend to see robots as soulless abominations.

** The Geth are a race of AI machines created by the Quarians who rose up against their creators, resulting in the death of millions of Quarians before the survivor were forced to flee. In response to these events, the Citadel Council passed a galaxy-wide law forbidding the creation of true A.I.s. However, "Virtual intelligences" are allowed because they are much more limited than true Artificial intelligences. V.I.s are not self-aware, are not capable of learning or advancing beyond their programming, and overall function more like an advanced computer than any actual computer intelligence.
** In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', a fringe human supremacist group Cerberus creates a true A.I., "EDI", in secret for its [[CoolStarship cutting-edge space frigate]] ''Normandy 2'', placing heavy restrictions into its programming to maintain control. Interestingly, the galactic ban on A.I. works to conceal EDI's true nature, as everyone not already in the loop just assumes she is a regular virtual intelligence because, obviously, no one in their right mind would have a true A.I. running every aspect of one's spaceship!

** An entire race, the quarians, were forced into an exile from their homeworld after losing a war with machines they've created, the geth. As a result of the geth-quarian war, the Galactic Council has passed a galaxy-wide law forbidding the creation of true A.I.s. However, "virtual intelligences", which have pre-programmed personalities and serve as personal secretaries, tour guides, etc., but are not capable of learning and self-awareness, are allowed.

* ''Literature/AfterTheRevolution'': The fundamentalist Heavenly Kingdom forbids A.I., even in their warfighting. This is one of the reason why the militias of the SDF can contain them, as without A.I. the Heavenly Kingdom's drones can't operate in SDF territories without being jammed and falling out of the skies. [[spoiler:The Kingdom gets around this by learning how to create WetwareCPU for their drones, setting the events of the book into motion.]]

* The increasing [[UsefulNotes/AIGeneratedArtwork use of AI for image generation]] has garnered controversy over time, especially when an artist's name is used in a prompt. Some art communities, like [=FurAffinity=] and r/art on Website/{{Reddit}}, have banned the posting of AI-generated pictures, while users of forums where it is not banned have advocated for a ban. A growing number of artists have some variant of the phrase "Use of my art for AI training is forbidden" in their social media and art portfolio profiles; while it might not stop AI bots from using their art, it at least informs others on the platform what their stance on AI illustrations is.

* The increasing [[UsefulNotes/AIGeneratedArtwork use of AI for image generation]] has garnered controversy over time, especially when an artist's name is used in a prompt. Some art forums, like [=FurAffinity=] and r/art on Website/{{Reddit}}, have banned the posting of AI-generated pictures, while users of forums where it is not banned have advocated for a ban. A growing number of artists have some variant of the phrase "Use of my art for AI training is forbidden" in their social media and art portfolio profiles; while it might not stop AI bots from using their art, it at least informs others on the platform what their stance on AI illustrations is.

** An entire race, the quarians, were forced into an exile from their homeworld after losing a war with machines they've created, the geth. As a result of the geth-quarian war, the Galactic Council has passed a galaxy-wide law forbidding the creation of true A.I.s. However, "Virtual intelligences", which have pre-programmed personalities and serve as personal secretaries, tour guides, etc., but are not capable of learning and self-awareness, are allowed.

* The increasing [[UsefulNotes/AIGeneratedArtwork use of AI for image generation]] has garnered controversy over time, especially when an artist's name is used in a prompt. Some art forums, like r/art on ''{{Website/Reddit}}'', have banned the posting of AI-generated pictures, while users of forums where it is not banned have advocated for a ban. A growing number of artists have some variant of the phrase "Use of my art for AI training is forbidden" in their social media and art portfolio profiles; while it might not stop AI bots from using their art, it at least informs others on the platform what their stance on AI illustrations is.
** The threat of Large Language Models like [=ChatGPT=] [[JobStealingRobot taking their jobs]] is a major grievance in the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Writers_Guild_of_America_strike 2023 Hollywood writer's strike]].

* The increasing use of AI for image generation has garnered controversy over time, especially when an artist's name is used in a prompt. Some art forums, like r/art on ''{{Website/Reddit}}'', have banned the posting of AI-generated pictures, while users of forums where it is not banned have advocated for a ban. A growing number of artists have some variant of the phrase "Use of my art for AI training is forbidden" in their social media and art portfolio profiles; while it might not stop AI bots from using their art, it at least informs others on the platform what their stance on AI illustrations is.

A society can decide to err on the side of caution and to simply forego any and all technology that would require AI to function, or it can explore alternate ways: a complete switch to [[OrganicTechnology biotech]], very limited virtual intelligences with heavy {{restraining bolt}}s, [[VirtualGhost brain uploading]], exclusive use of {{cyborg}}s and WetwareCPU, or continued secret development and usage of AI under a different name in the hopes that lightning won't strike twice.

* ''Anime/{{Macross}}'': Originally there was no such ban, but after the events of ''Anime/MacrossPlus'', wherein a rogue AI mind-controlled most of Earth for a few minutes before it was destroyed, later series mention that AI research and development is completely banned. Even non-sapient AI's are subject to heavy oversight, as seen with the recurring "Ghost" line of [[AttackDrone drone fighters]], which have to have their AI's slaved to human-controlled systems and their piloting capabilities severely reduced from what they could be.

* ''Film/AlienResurrection'': Androids were outlawed after an uprising, although some are reported to have survived. [[spoiler:Call is actually one of them.]]

* In ''Franchise/{{Dune}}'', not only [=AIs=], but computers in general are illegal after the [[RobotWar Butlerian Jihad]], and gifted and specially-bred humans instead serve the functions that ancient computers once did. The Navigators of the Spacing Guild calculate starship navigation, with their calculations fueled by [[SpiceOfLife the spice melange]], and Mentats function as human supercomputers and databases.
* In the ''Literature/BasLagCycle'', constructs disappear from New Crobuzon between ''Perdido Street Station'' and ''Iron Council'', due to the Robot War that was looming in the earlier novel taking place and the robots losing.
* In the ''Eager'' series, the climax of the first book involves several [=BCD4=] units--which are [[spoiler:made using the donated brains of dead people]]--going insane and nearly killing several people. As a result, some time before the beginning of the second book, "smart" A.I. is banned, and any that are left have to keep their existence a secret. By the time of ''Eager and the Mermaid'', [[spoiler:the ban has been lifted again]].
* In the second part of the ''Literature/HyperionCantos'', the Church has a ban on actual A.I.s after an organization of the latter started an invasion against humanity. Secretly, [[spoiler:their top leaders serve those very [=AIs=].]]
* Creator/IsaacAsimov:

** "Literature/{{Robbie}}": In Dr Asimov's ''Literature/IRobot'' collection, this story [[OrwellianRetcon has been modified to include]] an {{Exposition}} about robots being outlawed on Earth during the first decade of the 21st century, though it's okay to use them offworld. The usual stated reason is [[JobStealingRobot public fear of technological unemployment]], though it's implied that it's also partly because the development of talking robots put them into the UncannyValley and freaked people out.

-->[Sam Tobe] said: "That robot was created to run a Disinto on the moon. Its positronic brain was equipped for a lunar environment, and only a lunar environment. On Earth it's going to receive seventy-five umptillion sense impressions for which it was never prepared. There's no telling what its reactions will be. No telling!" And he wiped a forehead that had suddenly gone wet, with the back of his hand.

* Creator/AlastairReynolds {{Reconstruct|ion}}s this trope in his ''Literature/RevelationSpace'' universe: A.I. is considered bad, not just because AIIsACrapshoot (and it often is), but because using A.I. means enslaving a sapient mind. Most worlds restrict or ban the field of research. A.I. still pops up now and then, though, in the more liberal and advanced worlds, skunkworks programs, and from illegal bootleg A.I. traffickers. Results vary.
* In ''{{Literature/Slingshot}}'', humanity has decided that unlimited AIs are far too dangerous, and so all AIs are severely restricted: they can not self-modify, they have zero personal rights and can't control weaponry without a human in the loop. [[spoiler:This kind of slavery is exactly why aliens (AIs themselves) show up and attack humanity: they have tried (in secret) to convince human leadership that this form of slavery is unacceptable, but human leadership has stalled the aliens with malicious intent for over a decade by the time of the books, so a faction of the aliens decides to attack humanity.]]
* In the setting of the ''Literature/SprawlTrilogy'', it is unlawful to create fully self-aware A.I. Even the non-self-aware ones are carefully regulated by national and international institutions, quarantined from the internet by monolithic firewalls, and periodically [[DeathOfPersonality reformatted to keep them from deviating from their intended purpose]]. When a corporation creates two seperate entities that [[spoiler:could only achieve self-awareness together, one of them tries to do exactly that and merge with its counterpart]].
* In the ''Literature/TerranConfederacy'' [[TheVerse Verse]], after aliens used A.I.s to destabilize human governments and create world wars, the Confederacy and its successor states declared A.I. anathema, along with [[NoTranshumanismAllowed genetic engineering of sapients]] and nanotech. This is enforced by OrbitalBombardment of suspected development sites (and sometimes [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill the rest of the planet too]], because ItsTheOnlyWayToBeSure).
* In ''Literature/ConsiderPhlebas'', the Idirans are against AI for religious reasons and use limiting devices to ensure their computers don't become sentient.
* In ''Literature/TheAlgebraist'', following a devastating RobotWar, AIs are banned across multiple adjacent multi-stellar empires, and an active government department exists to seek old ones and destroy them. The story depicts the ban to be ill-conceived and hypocritical (AIs are still manufactured and deployed in extreme circumstances, though heavily restrained), [[spoiler:and the war itself was supposedly instigated with a succession of {{False Flag Operation}}s by the current galactic hegemon (according to one of the surviving AIs, who is never corroborated).]]
* Downplayed in the ''Literature/NoonUniverse'': There is no general ban on self-aware artificial intelligences, but the only one ever built, the "Massachusetts Machine" mentioned in ''Literature/FarRainbow'' and ''Literature/BeetleInTheAnthill'', ''is'' banned, and characters in the know almost always talk about it with borderline dread. From [[NoodleIncident its scant descriptions]], it can be surmised that the Machine was an AI so advanced that it had ''almost'' achieved TheSingularity within the brief four minutes that it had been in operation, before the engineers managed to turn it off in the last moment. This event was apparently so traumatic that no one on Earth has since dared to build anything similar. So, in effect, a ban on one specific AI resulted in the non-proliferation of strong [=AIs=] of any kind on Earth.

* An episode of ''Series/{{Andromeda}}'' has one planet ban [=AIs=] after rebelling against their rule, which proved far too clinical and logical with no room for humanity and compassion. Not only that, but they seem to have declared war on any other AI they find, including using their newest warship to destroy a colony of [=AIs=]. All the while not realizing that [[spoiler:one of their best agents is secretly an android]].
* The film ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' introduced a powerful robot that aimed to exterminate all life in the planet. The Avengers defeated him, but the country Sokovia was destroyed in the process. ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' (also set in the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse) explored the aftermath, and it was revealed that there was a ban on further experiments on AI. As you can guess, that means that a scientist worked on it anyway, even if in secret, ForScience This was limited to the TV series; the later films never mentioned this ban.
* The rebooted ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'' begins forty years into the truce between humans and Cylons. Not only is further AI research banned, but networked computers were banned for quite some time, because they proved too vulnerable to AI takeover. The colonies eventually abandon this policy, leaving only a few holdouts like Commander Adama refusing to allow networked computers on his ship, which is why his ship is one of the few that survive the Cylon attack.
* ''Series/StarTrekPicard'': TheFederation banned synthetic life-forms after a synth rebellion destroyed the Martian colonies and the Utopia Planitia shipyards. Starfleet does still employ sapient holograms, as seen in the holographic Index curator for the Quantum Archives. Rios' starship includes an EMH (Emergency Medical Hologram), an ENH (Emergency Navigational Hologram), an EHH (Emergency Hospitality Hologram), an ETH (Emergency Tactical Hologram), and an EEH (Emergency Engineering Hologram), so presumably holograms were exempt from the ban as long as they were kept under certain constraints. [[spoiler:The ban is overturned at the end of season 1, when Starfleet discovers that the synth rebellion was staged by a secret Romulan cabal called Zhat Vash.]]
** ''Series/StarDiscovery'' revealed that while ''most'' of the ban was long gone by the 32nd century, a prohibition against starships being controllable by fully integrated AI remained in force.
* ''Series/KamenRiderZeroOne'': When [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Gai Amatsu]] takes control of Hiden Intelligence, he orders that all of the company’s [[MegaCorp Humagears]] be recalled and scrapped. But very few go along with it, due to being dependent on Humagears to work jobs that some people don’t want to and [[TheHero Aruto]] and [[AntiHero Jin]] spend several episodes reactivating scrapped Humagears, returning them to where they originally worked and then fighting off Gai’s private army when they show up.

* Iron Crown Enterprises' ''TabletopGame/{{Cyberspace}}''. The development of true ArtificialIntelligence in computers is forbidden by the United Nations. The ArtificialIntelligence constraint laws are enforced worldwide by TRAIL (Transnet Regulatory ArtificialIntelligence League). This hasn't stopped some {{Mega Corp}}s from developing their own pet {{Artificial Intelligence}}s.
* In ''TabletopGame/EclipsePhase'', the Jovian Republic (Jupiter) bans all Artificial General Intelligences because of The Fall, the RobotWar that destroyed Earth and 90% of transhumanity. The Planetary Consortium (Mars, mostly) and Lunar-Lagrange Alliance (near-Earth space) tend to treat them almost like property under a lot of restrictions, while the Autonomists (Saturn, Asteroids, etc.) treat them equally. Even so, all but the most extreme Singularitarians are scared of Seed AI, which are capable of unlimited self-improvement and were the primary cause of The Fall.
* In ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'', humans nearly got wiped out by their own machines during the Dark Age of Technology, so, as per the Treaty of Mars, no machine intelligence is allowed to exist in the Imperium. Servitors, fulfilling the role of robots, are cyborgs with human parts either vat-grown or formerly belonging to a mind-wiped and reprogrammed criminal, and there are actual AIs running some of the most sophisticated and destructive military technology in the Imperium - which the Adeptus Mechanicus waves away by calling them machine spirits, adding that all technology made by man is inhabited by machine spirits, and the ones in the Land Raider battle tanks are simply especially holy, which explains their ability to move and fire without any human crew.

* ''VideoGame/CivilizationBeyondEarth'': The ''Rising Tide'' expansion introduces hybrid affinities, combinations of two of the base three affinities from the base game. Purity/Supremacy maintains a strict tool user-tool separation in their robotic units, fitting Purity's NoTranshumanismAllowed approach and Supremacy's end goal of BrainUploading. This is more-or-less in direct response to straight Supremacy's emphasis on robotics, cyborgs, AI, and eventual transhumanism through creating essentially android humanity.
* ''Franchise/MassEffect'' features an entire race, the quarians, being forced into an exile from their homeworld after losing a war with machines they've created, the geth. As a result of the geth-quarian war, the Galactic Council has passed a galaxy-wide law forbidding the creation of true [=AIs=]. (However, "Virtual intelligences", which have pre-programmed personalities and serve as personal secretaries, tour guides, etc., but are not capable of learning and self-awareness, are allowed.) In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', a fringe human supremacist group Cerberus creates a true AI, "EDI", in secret for its [[CoolStarship cutting edge space frigate]], ''Normandy 2'', placing heavy restrictions into its programming to maintain control. Interestingly, the galactic ban on AI works to conceal EDI's true nature, as everyone not already in the loop just assumes she is a regular virtual intelligence because, obviously, no one in their right mind would have a true AI running every aspect of one's spaceship!
** The ban plays a major part of the backstory of ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda''. Alec Ryder homebrewed an AI in an attempt to save his wife's life, and when he was found out, he and his children got blacklisted by the galaxy at large. The Andromeda Initiative allows him to keep up the work on the grounds that going to another galaxy is exceptional circumstances that might require AI assistance.
* ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'': The Orokin Empire's creation of thinking machines (dubbed the Sentients) led to their eventual downfall--though in the end the Sentients were merely one part of three concurrent TurnedAgainstTheirMasters events. Regardless, no one is willing to create true AI anymore. The Corpus come the closest to breaking the rule, and then only in the form of drones with programming comparable to animals. The Grineer prefer not to even risk it and exclusively turn humans into cyborgs, some of which (such as the Guardsmen) have little more than a head left over. A number of Cephalons (a specific sort of AI) have been around since the Orokin times, which raises the question of why they are not eligible for the AI ban. [[spoiler:The answer is that they're not [=AIs=] either, but computer backups of human minds with memories and personalities heavily edited to make them think they have always been machines and ensure compliance.]]
* You can adopt this policy for your empire in ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'', unless you're Materialist. This is especially popular with Spiritualist empires, who tend to see robots as soulless abominations.
* In ''VideoGame/{{X}}'', the Terran government banned all research into artificial general intelligence after their drone terraforming fleets turned on them after a faulty software update (which may have been deliberately sabotaged by a disgruntled employee, reports vary). This leads to the Terran Conflict between Earth and the Commonwealth in X3: Terran Conflict and Albion Prelude due to Earth's suspicion that aliens and offworld humans are experimenting with AGI.
* In ''VideoGame/AgeOfWondersPlanetfall'', the Heritors ''really'' hate [=AIs=]; anything more advanced than the {{Attack Drone}}s used as support units by the Vanguard are right out. [[GameplayAndStorySegregation This doesn't outright prevent alliances]] with the Autonom [=AI=] minor faction or major factions using [[TheSingularity Synthesis]] technology, but the Heritors do get a doctrine providing advantages against AI-integrated units that makes them both much more tempting target for destruction.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo'' episode "Ones and Zeroes", when his fellow Titans come up with the idea of creating their own robot to create a completely new pizza, Robin warns them not to do it, cuing a flashback of one of his own attempts going haywire. They do anyway, and by episode's end their new creation, caught in an infinite loop that includes creating its own drones, leaves Jump City in ruins and nearly takes over the world.

** The ImageBooru site Danbooru (one of the largest and most-used of its kind) has a ban on AI-generated art.