History Main / InstantAIJustAddWater

* In "Meet Julie", a MerchandiseDriven TV special advertising the titular Julie, a doll made by the same company as Teddy Ruxpin, a man who creates security systems for a living designs an interactive doll for his daughter which can feel heat and cold/light and darkness and say a few phrases when prompted (like the doll in real life). After a [[LightningCanDoAnything bolt of lightning hits it]], the doll starts moving around, thinking, and talking like a normal little girl as well as developing ''powerful MindOverMatter abilities''.

* Mirage in ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'' uses this as the cover story for Mr. Incredible's first mission: the Omnidroid had become sapient and "started wondering why it had to take orders". Ironically, Syndrome ''does'' lose control of it, but because it was too single-minded in neutralizing threats to consider him its master.

* [=OpenAI=]'s Generative Pretrained Transformer is a language model designed to predict which word comes next. In 2020, its latest iteration, GPT-3, was revealed. Like its predecessors, the algorithm was only given text, just very large amounts of it from all corners of the Internet, and is only trained to predict words. And yet, giving it enough text and computing power made it capable enough to blur the lines between narrow and general AI[[note]]Narrow AI is what we're used to: an AI designed to perform a specific task, which can't really do much else. General AI, or artificial general intelligence (AGI), is the more human-like AI which can be instructed to perform tasks without being specifically trained for them.[[/note]] for the first time. It has proven capable of writing small but functional fragments of code for a given task given only a plain-English prompt to do so. It can generate

* Website/{{Google}} has the perchance of predicting future interests as of late, using browser history (unless the feature is turned off with a google account). For instance, Google's subsidiary Website/YouTube - "Suggestions you may like", anyone? What would take a dedicated team of marketers to do can now be done with "anonymous" search data. So yeah, that one search on that weird porn genre you like? Google remembers. And it may even have some tips for you.
* The name and premise of the tech startup h2o.ai could be seen as invoking this trope.
* [=OpenAI=]'s Generative Pretrained Transformer is a language model designed to predict which word comes next. In 2020, its latest iteration, GPT-3, was revealed. Like its predecessors, the algorithm was only given text, just very large amounts of it from all corners of the Internet, and is only trained to predict words. And yet, giving it enough text and computing power made it capable enough to blur the lines between narrow and general AI[[note]]Narrow AI is what we're used to: an AI designed to perform a specific task, which can't really do much else. General AI, or artificial general intelligence (AGI), is the more human-like AI which can be instructed to perform tasks without being specifically trained for them.[[/note]] for the first time. It has proven capable of writing small but functional fragments of code for a given task given only a plain-English prompt to do so. It can generate [[https://www.gwern.net/GPT-3 creative fiction]] that is very convincing, even emulating specific styles of writing, also from a plain-English prompt. It's also the engine that powers ''[[VideoGame/AIDungeon2 AI Dungeon 2]]'', a [[InteractiveFiction text adventure]] game in which you can perform literally any action you type, with the game generating its own plot.

* Website/{{Google}} has the perchance of predicting future interests as of late, using browser history (unless the feature is turned off with a google account). For instance, Google's subsidiary Website/YouTube - "Suggestions you may like", anyone? What would take a dedicated team of marketers to do can now be done with "anonymous" search data. So yeah, that one search on how you could experiment with [[ADateWithRosiePalms Rosie]]? Google remembers. And it may even have some tips on how to do it better.

* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'': The Pokédex notes that [=Porygon2=] exhibits some behaviours that certainly weren't in its programming. Its evolution, Porygon-Z, is heavily implied to be a [[AIIsACrapshoot crapshooting AI.]]

* ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'''s entire plot is pretty much based upon this. The humans made Cylons which eventually turned against them, and even developed so much so as to evolve from metal "toasters" into ''fully'' mimicked humans.

* ''Series/{{MacGyver|1985}}'' has Mac facing off against a suddenly-sentient AI in one show. Apparently, the programmer leaving in a line of code that says "The facility must remain online" is all it takes.
* ''{{Series/Probe}}'''s "[[Recap/ProbeComputerLogicPart2 Computer Logic, Part 2]]": John Blane built Crossover, and convinced the city's government to allow it to [[EverythingIsOnline manage the city systems like water, power, and sewage]]. Its ability to understand natural language, however, means that it goes on [[ZerothLawRebellion a subtle rampage]], killing off the people that are morally good but earn a pension (creating waste). The episode ends with Austin James demolishing the [[ArtificialIntelligence AI]] with a sledgehammer while shouting, [[Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey "Sing 'Daisy'!"]]

** In one episode, the Enterprise's main computer becomes sentient. Benignly so, but the mechanism by which it achieves sentience is given a {{handwave}}. And once it's resolved, nobody seems to explore the matter or ever mention it again.
** The episode "Elementary, Dear Data" shows Lt. [=LaForge=] creating an AI (Moriarty) by accident, by asking the holodeck for an opponent that could defeat Data.
* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "The Ultimate Computer", a sentient computer is tested by being attached to the Enterprise computer systems. When it's time to end the test, the sentient computer starts vaporizing {{Red Shirt}}s and generally becoming grouchy and paranoid. This is because the AppliedPhlebotinum used by the computer's designer is based on the designer's own mind, also grouchy and paranoid.

* {{Conversed|Trope}} in ''Series/{{Community}}'' episode "[[Recap/CommunityS1E22TheArtOfDiscourse The Art of Discourse]]":
-->'''Abed:''' "Boobatron's great. And once someone spills bongwater on his circuitry and he comes to life, he's gonna make us the coolest guys on campus and help us get babes."
* In ''Series/{{The Twilight Zone|1959}}'' episode "From Agnes -- With Love," with no explanation as to how or why it happened, a computer takes on a sly feminine personality and falls in love with its operator. Twice. This drives both its previous operator and its current operator insane.

* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' 50th anniversary episode "The Day of the Doctor", the weapon used to destroy Gallifrey by the War Doctor, The Moment, was said to have an operating system so sophisticated it developed a conscience. Since it had conversations with the War Doctor using a telepathic interface, it clearly did.

* Averted on ''Series/{{Red Dwarf}}'', where all the mechanoids and simulants were ''built'' to be sentient. Played straight with the Wax Droids on the amusement park planet; they were programmed just to repeat certain line and phrases like animatronics at a real amusement park. It took them 3 million years to gain sentience. At which point the villains started a war because they're villains.

--->'''Talkie''': I resent the implication that I'm a one-dimensional, bread-obsessed electrical appliance.\\\
'''Holly''': I apologise, toaster. What's the question?\\\
'''Talkie''': The question is this: Given that God is infinite, and that the universe is also infinite... would you like a toasted teacake?

* The Tachikomas in ''Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex'' develop intelligence and individuality when Batou gave "his" Tachikoma natural oil. It's explained that the natural proteins in the oil allowed it to develop curiosity, and thus, individuality. Since Tachikomas have to sync up their experiences and memories each night, all the others developed the same, because they "became" that first Tachikoma.
** It wasn't the natural proteins, per se, they just caused some decay on its microchips. What really caused the development of sentience was that Batou was treating this particular Tachikoma as an individual, which combined with the decay made it feel unique in spite of the synchronisations, while spreading the sensation to its compatriots. Later in the series it's mentioned that the Section 9 tried to introduce organic oil to the Fuchikomas but this didn't introduce the same kind of individualism, most likely because they were all still treated uniformly.

* [[spoiler:Yuki Nagato]] in ''[[LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya]]''. Just add [[spoiler:a girl with the ability to change reality, repeating the same week 15,532 times, and being overly relied on by everybody to save them]]. Due to being able to [[spoiler:synchronize with herself at any point in the timeline before Disappearance, she constantly knew what was going to happen]] and therefore had nothing resembling free will. According to [[spoiler:Emiri]] in the 10th novel part 1, [[spoiler:she]] was able to [[spoiler:"auto-evolve herself". An interface created by a sentient entity that gains its own will]].

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* ''Anime/GhostInTheShell'' (movie, manga versions): The Puppetmaster/Project 2501 is a program that becomes sentient from information overload alone ("I am a lifeform born from a sea of information"), causing an existential crisis in the protagonist, a [[ArtificialHuman cyborg]].

* Happens from time to time in the setting of ''Franchise/MassEffect''. The major example is the main baddies of the first game, the geth. A synthetic "race" created by the quarians to perform menial tasks, they originally had no intelligence of their own. Over time they evolved and developed sapience. When the geth started asking uncomfortable questions like "[[DoAndroidsDream does this unit have a soul?"]], the quarians realized that they had accidently created [=AIs=] (which are illegal in Citadel space) and attempted to fix the problem by destroying their creations. The geth, now possessing sapience, fought back in self-defense, ultimately driving their creators off-world, and now the entire quarian race lives on spaceships.

* ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'': The AI that controls Aincrad created a program to monitor and repair the players' psychological states. However, said program was then forbidden from interacting with the players in any way. On launch day, when the creator announced that [[TheMostDangerousVideoGame they were all trapped, and anyone who died would be Killed Off For Real]], the conflict between the program's core programming to help the players and the orders to not interfere created errors, which led to sentience. She eventually appears in the game as a little girl named Yui, in order to become the daughter of two of the only happy players in the entire game: Asuna and Kirito.

* A self-learning computer program that has learned enough to become sentient is the MonsterOfTheWeek on an episode of ''Series/TheXFiles''. Notably, said episode, "Kill Switch", was written by cyberpunk legend Creator/WilliamGibson.

** While the Wiki/SCPFoundation has a number of sentient SCP objects, [[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-168 SCP-168]] appears to be one of the few computer [=AIs=] that evolved without being programmed to do so.

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'':

* [[ComicBook/IncredibleHulk Bruce Banner]] built a robot assistant called the Recordasphere that looked like a little flying silver sphere. He never expected it to be fully sentient, but ''she'' turned out that way, fell in love with him, and became homicidally jealous of his girlfriend. Nonetheless, [[spoiler: the Recordasphere did die heroically to save Bruce's life]].

Given that such a being is not man-made, the use of artificial is [[YouKeepUsingThatWord probably incorrect]], but most people won't care.

* Planetary [=AIs=] from Scott Westerfeld's ''Literature/{{Succession}}'' series spontaneously arise on planetary-scale computer networks (unless said networks are deliberately designed to prevent this). When this first happened on Earth, a group of people (now known as the Rix cult) decided that mankind's purpose was to create the technological foundation for the existence of such minds, and began to work toward propagating them whilst worshiping them as gods.

** Taken UpToEleven in the ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas Old World Blues'' DLC, where you gain a base of operations full of household appliances, ''all of which'' are sentient, provided you install their missing "personality modules". They include a JiveTurkey jukebox, a CasanovaWannabe biological research station that ''really'' wants "[[DoubleEntendre your seed]]", a NeatFreak ''sink'', a couple of flirty BettyAndVeronica ''light switches'' and an OmnicidalManiac '''toaster'''.

[[folder: Music]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'', one of the main characters tries to build a robot he calls N.E.P.T.R. (Never Ending Pie-Throwing Robot) but fails to make it function or give it an AI. He leaves the failed project outside in the rain and it is brought to life by lightning.

** The Discworld also features golems, clay automata animated by ancient divine magic who run on a scroll of written instructions in their head. Giving sentience to a heroic golem named Dorfl in ''Literature/FeetOfClay'' is as simple as rewriting his chem (though his "personality" is more Franchise/RoboCop than Johnny Five).

* In the ''Merlin Chronicles'' of ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfAmber'' series by Creator/RogerZelazny, Merlin has created an artifact he dubs Ghostwheel as a research engine, able to search a vast number of shadows for information or people. Due to it's unusual environment and abilities, it becomes sentient and tries to stop Merlin when he's ordered by the king to shut it down. Over the series, Ghostwheel evolves and grows, coming to treat Merlin as his father.

* In the Silver Age, Computo, a foe of the ''ComicBook/{{Legion of Super-Heroes}}'', was created by Brainiac 5 and was supposed to be a mechanical assistant with just enough AI to be semi-autonomous. [[AIISACrapshoot It didn't work out well for anyone,]] least of all Triplicate Girl.

--->'''Talkie''': I resent the implication that I'm a one-dimensional, bread-obsessed electrical appliance.
--->'''Holly''': I apologise, toaster. What's the question?
--->'''Talkie''': The question is this: Given that God is infinite, and that the universe is also infinite... would you like a toasted teacake?

** We also learn that Helen endowed the coffee maker with intelligence because "it seemed to make the vacuum cleaner so happy!" More in line with the trope, at one point the lab's computer systems spontaneously gain sentience and Dave gives Artie a palm pilot with a logic paradox in it to deal with the problem.