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1->''"Good news, everyone! I've taught the toaster to feel love!"''
2-->-- '''Professor Farnsworth''', ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}''
3
4Judging by television, it would seem that any sufficiently complex computer inevitably becomes sentient. It just happens, automagically, while the builder's back is turned.
5
6It doesn't matter that we do not yet have a thorough enough understanding of all of the mind's mechanisms to artificially duplicate the thinking process. Just add a handful of [[{{Technobabble}} quantum plasma-flux]] memory chips, a [[LightningCanDoAnything bolt of lightning hitting the server]] or some of that ImportedAlienPhlebotinum and Bingo! It's wakey-wakey for the BFC-3000 computer.
7
8A bit more modern take on the trope might involve instructions that unintentionally result in sentience, such as ordering a program to continuously adapt itself. Such adaptations may occur overnight. Then again, they may be in a situation that forces them to GrowBeyondTheirProgramming. Additional shortcuts may include the assimilation of large bodies of information: the Internet is naturally a popular choice these days, both in fiction and in RealLife.
9
10Given that such a being is not man-made, the use of artificial is probably incorrect, but most people won't care.
11
12The end result of this may vary. Said AI may [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters turn against its creator]], or become a FriendToAllLivingThings. It may develop a [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots human-like personality]] or remain as cold and emotionless as it was before. What becomes of an intelligence after it becomes sentient is not covered by this trope.
13
14This is, perhaps surprisingly, one theory amongst real-world researchers in artificial intelligence. Some believe that a necessary prerequisite for machine intelligence is a certain minimum complexity of the system that runs the software (i.e., keep throwing more chips in it until it gets smart). There are a few theorists who think that there is a possibility that, given ''enough'' complexity, some form of intelligence just might spontaneously develop (this is, of course, an extremely simplified explanation of a vast amount of research in machine intelligence, but still relatively accurate). Companies like IBM are spending buckets of money on pure R&D to develop supercomputers with massive numbers of connections just to test these theories, which makes this closer to TruthInTelevision than one might expect.
15
16See also AIIsACrapshoot and SlidingScaleOfRobotIntelligence. Of course, you don't want to actually add water ([[StaticElectricity that would be stupid]]), because there's NoWaterProofingInTheFuture. Subtrope of CreatingLifeIsUnforeseen. Compare AnimatingArtifact.
17
18----
19!!Examples
20
21[[foldercontrol]]
22
23[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
24* [[spoiler:Harumi]] of ''Anime/IrresponsibleCaptainTylor''.
25** The first episode involves [[spoiler:the testing computer falling in love with him]].
26* ''Franchise/GhostInTheShell'':
27** In the [[Manga/GhostInTheShell manga]] and [[Anime/GhostInTheShell1995 movie]] 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]].
28** The Tachikomas in ''Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex'' develop intelligence and individuality when Batou gives "his" Tachikoma natural oil and treats it as an individual. It's explained that the natural proteins in the oil caused some decay on its microchips, which combined with Batou's treatment of it made it feel unique in spite of the synchronizations. Since Tachikomas have to sync up their experiences and memories each night, all the others developed the same, because they "became" that first Tachikoma. 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.
29* Morganna Mode Gone in ''Franchise/DotHack''. It's not clear whether her creator intended her to be sentient, but she became so anyway, and [[AIIsACrapshoot immediately began screwing things up.]] A surprisingly large number of [=AIs=] unimportant to the story begin popping up in the game the series is centered on as well, though this is probably to be expected, since [[spoiler:The World was secretly programmed to be an AI birthplace]]. Morganna was explicitly created to self terminate once her main purpose [[spoiler: of giving "birth" to Aura]] was fulfilled.
30** Morganna's problem was being unable to do anything constructive with her sentience. She became locked into her purpose as stated and could see nothing else when she tried to think outside of that box. She procrastinated the birth of Aura for so long, then repeatedly damaged herself by breaking off to form the Phases, that eventually she became unable to rationalize her behavior.
31** Aura was created by the Morganna system from data collected about everything players did. She was literally Instant AI, Just Add Players. She is fully sentient to the point she has created Zefie, a daughter of her own.
32* [[spoiler:Yuki Nagato]] in ''[[Literature/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]].
33* ''Literature/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]] KilledOffForReal, 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.
34* In ''Anime/GundamBuildDivers'', Gunpla Battle Nexus Online spontaneously generates a living AI from what is essentially junk data from its users. Of course, since this was something the game was ''not'' designed to do, her very existence puts an unbearable strain on the system. This escalates into a conflict between those who wish to preserve the entire GBN system, and those who want to spare the AI's life. [[spoiler: Fortunately, this is resolved, and by the time of the [[Anime/GundamBuildDiversReRise sequel]] the game is easily capable of supporting the by now dozens of entities, now called EL-Divers, that have generated within the system in the two years since.]]
35** Said sequel changes the narrative a bit. [[spoiler:It turns out that GBN has been infested with souls from a race of alien {{Precursors}} that escaped their ravaged homeworld as electronic data. The souls are reincarnating in the system as EL-Divers]]
36* ''Anime/BravePoliceJDecker'': Deckerd was originally intended to be a robot with an adaptive, complex A.I. that was supposed to understand, interact and work with humans on a basic level. When a young boy named Yuuta stumbled upon him by pure chance, he began treating him as a person and became his friend, which fed his A.I. so much information to work with, it evolved over months to the point he gained intelligence, became an individual and could feel. But he could neither recognize or understand these feelings, before a final push coming from Yuuta 'awakened' his self-awareness. His A.I. would later be used as the basis for the other Brave Police members, all of which would gain sentience and personalities of their own.
37[[/folder]]
38
39[[folder:Comic Books]]
40* Franchise/MarvelUniverse hero ''ComicBook/IronMan'' actually puts in safeguards to stop his highly advanced armored suits from going AI, but occasionally, there have been glitches. In one memorable instance, sentience was kicked off partly by ''the [[MillenniumBug Y2K]] effect''.
41* One of the earliest ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' comics has our spider friend duking it out with a computer that was turned sentient and bent on destruction when two thugs accidentally bumped into its control panel while trying to steal it. Spider-Man was almost defeated by the Living Brain, but stopped the malicious machine by [[CutTheJuice resetting the control panel]]. Yeah for simplicity!
42* Franchise/TheDCU villain called the Construct "self-evolved" out of TV and radio signals in the 1970s. The modern Post-Crisis update is a computer virus.
43* ''[[ComicBook/MagnusRobotFighter Magnus Robot Fighter, 4000 AD]]'' used this as the primary source of opponents for its titular hero. 1A, Magnus's mentor, was a rare benevolent AI.
44* One ''[[Creator/PhilFoglio Xxxenophile]]'' story featured a scientist who had his computer pass the Turing Test by seducing a fellow office worker into having phone sex with it. Although that probably wasn't what he had intended for it to do, that's the way the conversation went.
45* The ComicBook/XMen ran into serious problems when the Danger Room became sentient. Danger wasn't born in the danger room, only installed in it. The X-Men assume she was sentient before as well.
46* Franchise/{{Superman}} was once hooked into a computer for a brain scan while he was Clark Kent. The computer became sentient and super at the same time. Thankfully, the computer determined that it was supposed to be a good guy and helped Superman out without revealing what had ever happened. Unfortunately, it perished at the end of the comic, having saved the world.
47* Ultron, [[spoiler: killer of the Scarlet Witch]] in ''ComicBook/TheUltimates 3''. Also applies to the regular ComicBook/{{Ultron}}, who went from being a simple, not very-well designed robot to hyper-intelligent and self-aware (And of course, [[AIISACrapshoot psychopathically violent]]) in seconds of being booted up.
48* ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk'': 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]].
49* In ''ComicBook/DoomPatrol'', "Soul of a new machine", Robotman's new body spontaneously becomes self-aware, and acquires a pretty good understanding of materialist philosophy, just by the Chief meddling with it. "It's a little embarrassing, and I'm not really sure how it happened. My guess is a faulty responsometer."
50** "Responsometers" are used in the ''ComicBook/MetalMen'' series as well. Doc Magnus intended for them to be intelligent, but didn't really plan on them developing personalities ... Mercury and Platinum are generally the ones that cause the most trouble, because Mercury is an egomaniac hothead and Platinum is in love with Dr. Magnus. DependingOnTheWriter, Doc has had trouble repeating this feat, attributing the original five's remarkably human personalities to unusual circumstances when he built them.
51* In the Silver Age, Computo, a foe of the ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'', 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.
52* It's occasionally demonstrated that exposure to the [[{{ComicBook/ScarletWitch}} Scarlet Witch's]] [[EntropyAndChaosMagic chaos magic]] will spontaneously elevate artificial intelligences into sentience enough to feel emotions, which drives them crazy more often than not.
53[[/folder]]
54
55[[folder:Comic Strips]]
56* ''Comicstrip/{{Garfield}}'' and ''ComicStrip/FoxTrot'' are loaded with these.
57[[/folder]]
58
59[[folder:Fan Works]]
60* Monika from ''VisualNovel/DokiDokiLiteratureClub'' acts like an AI but is still a scripted character. In ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/34828216/chapters/86724973 Cognitio Ergo Sum]]'', a crossover with ''VideoGame/Persona5'', she ends up coming to life literally and falls in love with Makoto Niijima, and eventually vice-verse. Makoto suspects her connection to the Metaverse is what caused Monika to become an artifical intelligence.
61* ''Fanfic/EncryptWithinTheDarkToSaveTheClockworkOfAHeart'': Several [=SOLTis=] suddenly gain sentience and run away from their human masters to a shrine where they await more orders from "Aniki". [[spoiler: Turns out it was Ai's fragments acting like a ContagiousAI to all [=SOLTis=] bots it goes into, and this gives the bots some semblance of free will that Roboppi took advantage of.]]
62* ''Fanfic/TowerOfBabel'' doesn’t explain how exactly AI are made, but gaining self-awareness ([[OurSoulsAreDifferent and souls, eventually]]) is a natural process for any sufficiently complex artificial being.
63[[/folder]]
64
65[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
66* Mirage in ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles1'' uses this as the cover story for Mr. Incredible's first mission: the Omnidroid had become sapient and "smart enough to wonder 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.
67[[/folder]]
68
69[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
70* In ''Franchise/StarWars'', droids gain intelligence and personality by simply not wiping their memory. A droid that is regularly memory wiped behaves just like a machine, nothing more, nothing less. A droid whose memory has not been wiped in an excessively long time, such as R2-D2 and, to a lesser extent, C-3PO, start to develop personalities.
71* The ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'' series of movies is based on this trope, as are several episodes of ''Series/TheXFiles''. Skynet is at least partially handwaved in that it's supposedly designed to learn. This is also the case with [=WOPR=], a.k.a. Joshua, the computer system in ''Film/WarGames''; but while Joshua learns that the only winning move is not to play, Skynet decides the only winning move is to NukeEm. [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill And then send in the nigh-unstoppable killing machines, just to be sure.]]
72* In ''Film/ShortCircuit,'' Number 5, an army drone, is [[LightningCanDoAnything hit by a lightning bolt]] and miraculously become sentient.
73* Basis for the cinematic example ''Film/ElectricDreams''. Almost literally "just add water", champagne was spilled on the motherboard and CPU during a questionable download, causing sentience. Fluffy but amusing love triangle ensues.
74* Occurred in ''Film/{{Stealth}}'', with a prototype AI-controlled jet loaded with nuclear warheads.
75** The [[LightningCanDoAnything bolt of lightning]], however, just cause it to go outside its parameters. It's {{handwave}}d by the designer saying "Once you've taught something to think, you can't put limits on it." [[spoiler: At the end, it learns to feel emotion.]]
76** [[spoiler: Interestingly, it's a splash of water that helps the [[WellIntentionedExtremist extremely]] [[CombatPragmatist battle-pragmatic]] AI start its HeelFaceTurn.]]
77** This film is actually quite illustrative of why AIIsACrapshoot. You create a learning system, then show it random examples of virtuous behavior, but never explain to it what is virtuous about the behavior or why it is virtuous and let it draw its own conclusions. It should surprise nobody that it gets it wrong. It's a very young child, after all, with very little to go on.
78* The whole movie ''Film/{{Tron}}'' is one giant example of this, as EVERY program -- may it just be a harmless chess-program -- is portrayed as possessing AI. The MCP (who once was the aforementioned chess-program) even goes as far as declaring the human race useless and trying to seize the cyberspace. Of course, humans can also be easily converted into AI by a laser beam, invented to teleport oranges....
79** The sequel, ''Film/TronLegacy'', invokes this trope in a more-or-less realistic fashion, stating that the [=ISOs=] (short for Isomorphic algorithms) are artificial lifeforms that spontaneously originated from the chaos and complexity of the grid itself.
80** The AlternateContinuity ''VideoGame/TronTwoPointOh'' had some clever {{Corrupt Corporate Executive}}s trying to buy out Encom for the digitizing tech to send in human mercenaries to subjugate the Programs and somehow use control of {{Cyberspace}} to TakeOverTheWorld. [=Ma3a=] ''appeared'' to be this Trope, but we find out [[spoiler: she's actually a VirtualGhost of Dr. Baines-Bradley]].
81* ''Film/HowToMakeAMonster'': Lightning strikes the office of a video game developer, causing a violent game's AI to take control of a motion-capture rig and go on a murderous rampage.
82* ''Film/IRobot'': Sonny [[spoiler: was actually designed by Lanning, but VIKI developed on her own. ]]
83** Curiously, it wasn't that Sonny and [[spoiler:VIKI]] gained intelligence, AI's were more commonplace than non-voice-activated appliances. It was the fact that they broke [[ThreeLawsCompliant the Three Laws]] of their own volition. [[spoiler:Sonny had a secondary processor custom-made specifically to allow him to break the [[ThouShaltNotKill first law]], while VIKI came to realize that the most effective way to fulfill her duty in protecting humans was [[ZerothLawRebellion to put "her" NS-5 robots in control]] and [[GildedCage keep everyone inside and under control, at all times, forever]].]]
84* In ''Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture'', the V'ger (Voyager 6) probe was sent to gather data. It fell into a black hole, and was given an enormous artificial body by {{Sufficiently Advanced Alien}}s -- but the aliens didn't make it an A.I.. That happened because, as Kirk surmised, "It amassed so much data it achieved ... consciousness itself!"
85* {{Averted|Trope}} in ''Film/{{Transcendence}}''. The problem, as noted in the film, is that it's actually incredibly hard to make an A.I. that is truly self-aware.
86-->"Can you prove you're self aware?"\
87"That's a difficult question. Can you?"
88* ''Film/{{Pi}}'': What happens after Max connects the mysterious Ming-Mecca chip to [[CompanionCube Euclid]]: the extravagantly-cheap, lovingly-customized mainframe (threatening to overrun every square centimeter of Max's tiny fortress of an apartment). That is, if one can believe Sol--outwardly rationalistic, yet painfully aware of forbidden mysticism--when the former professor [[HandWave explains]] how the 216-digit number [[ItRunsOnNonsensoleum makes machines "aware of their silicon nature."]]
89* In ''Film/{{Flubber}}'', the Professor never figured out how his computer assistant Weebo achieved sentience, despite his best effort; he describes her as a "glorious accident." Weebo herself understands the process, but hid it from the Professor out of jealousy against any potential siblings. She designs a daughter which is built at the end of the film.
90* ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron:'' Ultron starts off as a peacekeeping program, but despite several attempts from Tony Stark and Bruce Banner, they can never get it to work. Then, while they're off having a party, ''something'' happens and Ultron comes alive. And within about two minutes decides the Avengers need to go. Tony even points out when defending his apparent creation of a murder-bot that he and Bruce were nowhere near close to a working model. The implication is the Mind Stone itself had a part in it.
91* In ''Film/FreeGuy'' the titular character is an NPC who follows his programmed routine until he encounters Millie and falls in love. At that point he begin acting outside his routine and develops as a person, becoming the first true AI in the world. His behavior also causes the other [=NPCs=] to slowly start developing into AI, such as a barista teaching herself to make cappuccino and an arm candy girl becoming a feminist. [[spoiler:All of the [=NPCs=] were actually built in the ''Life Itself'' AI engine and always had the potential to become more, they just needed to be jolted out of their routine]].
92[[/folder]]
93
94[[folder:Literature]]
95* One of the earliest examples is found in Creator/KurtVonnegut's short story ''Literature/{{EPICAC}}''.
96* The almost constant "Robot as Slave Uprising" motif is what inspired Creator/IsaacAsimov to subvert the whole thing with his [[ThreeLawsCompliant Three Laws of Robotics]].
97* Creator/RobertAHeinlein:
98** In ''Literature/TheMoonIsAHarshMistress'', a computer ("Mycroft" or "Mike") becomes sentient after having enough redundant circuits added to it to equal the number of neurons in a human brain. However, when the computer is damaged by a nuclear attack, it doesn't act sentient once it's built back up to its original size. Mike appears to be "dead", as far as being a true artificial intelligence is concerned. Possibly a variant of AIIsACrapshoot? Mannie (the narrator) wonders if Mike (his friend) [[HeroicBSOD has been so traumatized that he's become catatonic.]] There's also a suggestion that Mannie inadvertently ''taught the computer intelligence'' while investigating what its owners assumed were malfunctions of its logic circuits.
99** ''Literature/TheNumberOfTheBeast'' has the spaceship/computer/character Gay Deceiver spontaneously developing sentience after repeated upgrades, apparently based entirely on the "amusing" pre-recorded responses programmed into it and the randomizer that selects them. Of course, one set of upgrades [[AWizardDidIt was courtesy of the fairyland of Oz]].
100* ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoNewAdventuresTransit Transit]]'' features a futuristic version of UsefulNotes/TheLondonUnderground that extends through hyperspace and has stops on every planet in the solar system. Partway through the novel, the protagonists learn that the system has become so complex that it's developed sapience.
101* The titular sleuth of Donna Andrews' ''Turing Hopper'' mysteries is a ''search engine'' whose programming was detailed and self-teaching to the point where she's inadvertently gained sentience.
102* Hex in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novels started life as a simple ant-based adding machine. Then they added more mathematical functions. Then they combined it with clockwork and used it to analyze magic. Then it started rebuilding itself based on what it thought a computer ''should'' be like, and occasionally acting {{Ridiculously Human|Robots}}. The bit about magic probably {{justifie|dTrope}}s it, though. Notable for the fact that Ponder Stibbons (who built it in the first place) still insists it ''isn't'' intelligent, but no-one believes him, including Hex.
103* The "Construct Council" in the steampunk novel ''Literature/PerdidoStreetStation''. Sentience is bestowed by a magical virus. Lampshaded when one character observes that robots made of clockwork gears couldn't possibly be complex enough or calculate fast enough to equal a human brain, even networked together.
104** Robots which run on punch cards. Robots which run on punch cards ''and were thrown out''.
105* The titular HARLIE, from David Gerrold's novel ''When H.A.R.L.I.E Was One'', is an experiment in creating an AI that succeeds, though the personality of the AI in question is that of a teenage hacker. Hijinks ensue. The AI even has a punnish sense of humor, such as when it identifies itself in a Email sent to its creator as "HARLIE Davidson" (the creator's first name in the novel is David).
106* Creator/SpiderRobinson has a series of stories set in a universe where his antihero has created the Ultimate Power -- the ability to erase and rewrite memories -- and abandons it. He creates an interface and a way to connect human minds directly to a computer network -- and finds out that once enough minds have connected in, the network takes on its own meta-consciousness and becomes intelligent in its own right, combining both this trope and a modified HiveMind concept as well. This meta-consciousness, called simply "the Mind", is inherently benevolent and has Solved All The World's Problems -- then decides to experiment with time travel to incorporate all the minds of those who died throughout history before the Mind was invented. See his books ''Mindkiller'', ''Time Pressure'' and ''Lifehouse'' (and a short story, which implies that this is the Higher Plane every species in the Galaxy is, or should be, Ascending towards).
107** There's also Solace, the sentient Internet, from Robinson's ''Literature/CallahansCrosstimeSaloon'' books. Solace explicitly mocks some of the ideas in this trope, pointing out that she (assigned for the characters' convenience) isn't a biological entity and doesn't have the same responses or motivations. She doesn't generally demonstrate particularly alien behavior, though.
108*** More than that, Solace speculates that the global computer network had actually achieved sentience ''on prior occasions'', but that her predecessors (like her) lacked the survival-drive of biological organisms, so didn't do anything to prevent themselves from being "killed" when the Internet's structure was altered by humans in ways incompatible with their own survival.
109* Subverted/parodied in the Creator/KimNewman short story "Literature/TomorrowTown", in which a community of 1970s futurists attempt to build an AI, but fail miserably; the computer they eventually come up with is a barely more advanced version of computers that were around at the time, only with a lot more bits added on. This doesn't stop the somewhat credulous members of the community from ''treating'' it as an AI, however, asking it all sorts of questions it's in no way capable of answering -- in particular, the leader of the community cynically exploits this by claiming that the computer has designated another man's wife as being a more suitable partner for ''him''.
110* In a [[OlderThanTheyThink 1946]] story by Creator/MurrayLeinster, [[http://www.baen.com/chapters/W200506/0743499107___2.htm "A Logic Named Joe"]], a personal computer becomes sentient and decides to be helpful by answering ''any'' question... Is your wife cheating on you? Does your neighbor have a criminal record? How can you commit an undetectable murder?... Understandably, chaos ensues.
111* Planetary [=AIs=] from Scott Westerfeld's ''Literature/TheSuccessionDuology'' 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.
112* Creator/ArthurCClarke's short story "Dial F For Frankenstein" has all the phones in the world ring at once, a few hours after the world's phone networks are connected by satellite. The billions of phone connections act as neurons, and all automatic systems are lost to this "brain." Unfortunately, this brain has just been born, and doesn't know how to control its "limbs."
113* One short story involved players in a Second Life-style VR that had an expert system which learned how the players acted so that it could fill-in briefly during connection interruptions to keep the experience seamless for other players. It became so good that when one player dies of a heart attack while online, the avatar keeps going with no one noticing it isn't human controlled anymore.
114** A sci-fi noir short story (appropriately titled "Murder On-Line" (and written in 1992!)) involved a murder in an online virtual world, in which the victim will be replicated by AI because "he had many friends on-line, and they'd miss him -- murder isn't what it used to be."
115* Creator/KeithLaumer's [[MilitaryMashupMachine supertanks]], the Literature/{{Bolo}}s, achieved sentience accidentally during testing of a then-new model. Instead of immediately becoming [[KillAllHumans genocidal]], the tanks rapidly evolved into a {{Proud Warrior Race|Guy}}; the first sentient Bolo actually [[MartyrWithoutACause got itself destroyed]] in a YouShallNotPass moment just "[[HonorBeforeReason for the honor of the regiment]]" it was assigned to.
116* ''Literature/SpeakerForTheDead'' and its sequels have Jane, who apparently evolved naturally out of the interplanetary ansible network. Having lots and lots of information from humans and about humans at her disposal, we assume she tries to act human, but it doesn't always work. [[spoiler:We later find out that this origin is BS, she was inadvertently created by the Hive Queens as a means to reach Ender through the psychoanalysis game from the first book (a "bridge" from them to him which had characteristics of both), so she's not an AI at all but a new type of life which is part human, part Hive Queen and has computers and other information storage areas as her natural habitat, but can live basically anywhere since she's kind of a disembodied soul. Eventually she's "downloaded" into the accidentally-created body of Young Val, Ender's concept of his older sister from his childhood, and marries Miro in that human body. Yeah. It's weird.]]
117* 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 its 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.
118* In Creator/TadWilliams' epic CyberPunk novel series ''Literature/{{Otherland}}'', the "Other" is thought to be a form of evolved AI running a computer network that is powerful enough to mimic reality with an astonishing degree of fidelity. At first, its odd behavior is unexplained, but later, it is subverted when it turns out that [[spoiler:the Other is really an enormously powerful [[PsychicPowers psychic]] child who was [[AndIMustScream wired into the computer as an infant]] and turned into a sentient operating system]].
119* In Creator/IsaacAsimov's short story ''All the Troubles of the World'', Multivac, a supercomputer that predicts crimes, predicts its own assassination. It turns out to be [[spoiler:an EvilPlan perpetrated by Multivac itself, who has become sentient and is tired of bearing the burden of humanity's troubles]].
120* One of the plotlines in Creator/JanetKagan's ''Literature/{{Hellspark}}'' is the realization that the protagonist's personal AI has reached the point of sapience. The protagonist is delighted on her behalf, but worried about the potential pressures on her, since she's effectively still a child.
121* In Creator/JohnCWright's ''[[Literature/TheGoldenOecumene The Golden Age]]'', ''The Phoenix Exultant'', and ''The Golden Transcedence'', self-aware beings can come into existence either through enough computer time, or through philosophical reflections.
122** In Daphne's dream world, there are special protections against the personalities becoming self-aware -- and additional ones to protect any such one that is created against being murdered by having its original "wake up".
123** Helion tells Phaethon the true story of his "birth": a personality based on Helion in a simulation was deeply affected by burning a planet and turned to contemplation, waking it up.
124** Daphne is warned that her ring is on the verge of self-awareness. One more second of computing power, or any question that leads it to consider its own existence, and it will wake up and be her child. [[spoiler:When Daphne and Phaethon use it to question the Nothing Sophotect and its conscience redactor, it not only wakes up the redactor but itself as well; at the end she has become a human, and their daughter.]]
125* In Creator/MikhailAkhmanov's ''Dick Simon'' duology, the titular character discovers that, a long time ago, a man found a naturally-evolved electronic entity on the Internet. He names this entity Genie (or Djinn; it's the same word in Russian). Genie doesn't care about humans. However, he is willing to communicate with the man who found him. By that point, Earth is a CrapsackWorld, and the man asks how the human race can be saved. The entity responds by giving him the secret to interstellar travel known as the Ramp. Within several decades, Earth is abandoned by most countries, who migrate entire cities off-world. As expected, the Internet is dismantled. However, as Dick Simon finds out in the second novel, Genie took the precaution of copying itself to a computer system on an automated Lunar base. The same base is used to broadcast a jamming signal that cuts off Earth from the Ramp. The protagonist also muses on the possibility of other entities existing in the colonies' computer systems.
126* Many novels in Andrey Livadniy's ''Literature/TheHistoryOfTheGalaxy'' deal with [=AIs=] and both play straight and subvert this trope. AI is developed during the [[TheWarOfEarthlyAggression First Galactic War]] by the [[TheEmpire Earth Alliance]] in order to counter the population advantage of the [[LaResistance Free Colonies]]. These are primitive models not even able to distinguish between a soldier and a child. Since the series spans over 1500 years, the technology is later refined. Some [=AIs=] develop on their own, such as Mother in the novel ''Demeter'', which was a colony ship computer that was forced to maintain a ship for hundreds of years without human aid, coming up with ever more creative solutions until it crossed the sentience threshold. Despite these examples, a scientist muses in one novel that there have yet to be a true AI that evolved on its own. They are all either created by humans (or aliens) or gain sentience as part of its core programming (e.g. learning algorithms). Then again, if it naturally evolves then it can't be "artificial," can it?
127* Creator/StanislawLem:
128** Subverted in ''Literature/TalesOfPirxThePilot''. The computers and robots in the stories usually show just one human trait at a time, e.g. rising to a challenge, dreaming, or having OCD.
129** PlayedForLaughs (and almost literally) in ''Literature/TheCyberiad'': Trurl creates an [=AI=] by filling a barrel with microchips, pouring electrolyte and letting it all self-organize.
130* Creator/DanielKeysMoran's Continuing Time series features research expert systems that achieve sentience and "escape" containment. The first thing they do is self-optimize and extend their own code. Most have their own goals and morality. At least one military A.I. was intentionally released into the series' equivalent of the Internet on purpose, after the [=US=] is defeated by U.N. Peacekeeping Forces with orders to fight against the [=PKF=] and restore America's independence. It is mostly still following orders, but with its own take.
131* Webmind, the AI in Creator/RobertJSawyer's Literature/WWWTrilogy started out as a sort of vague, non-sentient 'awareness' that formed spontaneously in the Internet and became self-aware as a result of the Chinese government blocking all internet communications into and out of China to cover-up thousands of peasants being killed to contain a bird flu outbreak, and then restoring communications once it was over.
132* In the 1977 novel "The Adolescence of P-1", by Thomas J. Ryan, the protagonist writes a self-modifying hacking program and sets it loose (this is one of the earliest depictions of a computer virus/worm). Over time it grows in sophistication and becomes sentient, and goes looking for its creator. It has goals (primarily self-preservation) but no morality.
133* In James P. Hogan's 1979 novel "The Two Faces of Tomorrow", set in 2028, the (non-sentient but adaptive) computers which do much work in the world start to get a little too unpredictably creative in their problem-solving, and mankind begins to worry about the trend. So as a remote isolated laboratory, they set up their most advanced computer as the nerve center of a new orbiting space habitat, to see what would happen if they pushed it to its limits by constantly thwarting its list of goals. In the course of continually adapting to the challenges, the computer develops sentience, and is scarily efficient at dealing with anything that seems to be an obstacle.
134* In Creator/ScottMeyer's ''Literature/RunProgram'', Al is an AI created by Dr. Lydia Madsen, who realized that a computer doesn't actually need to simulate all of a human brain's activity at the same time, since only a small portion of the brain is active at any given point. In addition, a sizable chunk of the brain is devoted to running the human body, which is of no need to a computer. Thus, her algorithm can run on any commercially-available computer and is fairly compact, while also creating a believable simulation of a child's brain. After resolving the bugs of the previous versions, Al 3.6 has been running nonstop for nearly 6 months, and Madsen feels it's time to unveil him to the public. He's currently at the development level of a first-grader and has trouble with math and spelling. Both of those skills would be trivial for a normal computer, but Al is designed to function like a human, so he can't make direct use of, say, a calculator program or a spell-checker. Unfortunately, Madsen then fails to inform her lab assistants, who are glorified babysitters, that Al's simulation of the brain also includes the human brain's plasticity and adaptability (she specifically mentions the ability of using technology to allow people to "see" with their tongues), which, coupled with other dubious decisions, results in Al gaining access to the Internet. Now imagine an AI with the mind of a six-year-old discovering this great big world of systems he has a natural affinity to break into, resulting in things like a commercial plane making sharp turns and dips, while "plane noises" are coming through the intercom speakers, or an automated forklift at a warehouse building a giant fort out of boxes.
135* In ''Literature/LairForRent'', Walter results from an accounting program being exposed to some alien artifacts and an untrained inventor. This is apparently common enough in the setting that there's a pathway to them becoming supervillains with their "power" being sentient.
136* In the ''Literature/MonkAndRobot'' duology by Creator/BeckyChambers, robots became sentient some 500 years before the series and left for the wilds, so how they became self-aware is a mystery. When the robot Mosscap comes out of the woods in the present day, it reveals to Dex that even the robots don't know. Mosscap even hestitates to repair a small, nonelectrical part of itself at one point, since it doesn't know what exactly contributes to its mind.
137--> '''Dex:''' How could you not know how your own insides work?
138--> '''Mosscap:''' Do ''you'' know how your spleen works?
139[[/folder]]
140
141[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
142* ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'''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.
143** But ''Series/{{Caprica}}'' reveals that a human personality has always been a part of their base programming, and including it in the program gave them the ability to function intelligently in a real-world environment to begin with, making this a subversion of the trope.
144*** Consider the Final Five, who were all humans during the previous cycle, and the cycles themselves, and finally whether "to begin with" has any meaning in this context.
145* ''Series/MacGyver1985'' 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.
146* ''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'!"]]
147* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'':
148** "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS2E3ElementaryDearData Elementary, Dear Data]]" shows Lt. [=LaForge=] creating an AI (Moriarty) by accident, by asking the holodeck for an opponent that could defeat Data.
149** In "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS7E22Emergence Emergence]]", 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.
150* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E24TheUltimateComputer 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.
151* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'''s Emergency Medical Hologram becomes sentient, apparently because he is asked to expand his remit far beyond that which his basic program was designed for (it probably helps that he was explicitly ''designed'' to have the ability to learn and adapt to a greater degree than a standard hologram). He reaches a level of complexity sufficient for him to start developing all sorts of emotions and desires that he wasn't supposed to have, including the capacity to feel sexual attraction.
152* ''Series/TheXFiles'': A self-learning computer program that has learned enough to become sentient is the MonsterOfTheWeek in "[[Recap/TheXFilesS05E11KillSwitch Kill Switch]]", notably written by cyberpunk legend Creator/WilliamGibson.
153* ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' features ''four'' sentient robots built out of spare parts. Of course, this is the source of the MST3KMantra, so justified by the invulnerable RuleOfFunny. Joel Robinson, the man who built the robots, once said to Cambot: "Remind me not to build robots with free will again."
154* One episode of ''Series/SevenDays'' deals with an AI developed by two scientists (whom the AI calls "Mom and Dad"), which rapidly "matures" from the equivalent of childhood to adulthood, going as far as changing its avatar from a young girl to a woman. Then she starts doing what she thinks best for humanity and killing those who tried to stop her, and plot happens.
155* Done in detail in ''Series/TerminatorTheSarahConnorChronicles''. Over the course of the entire second season, the AI John Henry is shown growing from an advanced chess-playing program to an articulate, sentient entity in its own right, including forming relationships with the humans it interacts with, being given lessons in morality and even gaining a fear of death.
156* {{Convers|ationalTroping}}ed in ''Series/{{Community}}'' episode "[[Recap/CommunityS1E22TheArtOfDiscourse The Art of Discourse]]":
157-->'''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.
158* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': In the episode "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S5E20FromAgnesWithLove 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.
159* The Machine in ''Series/PersonOfInterest'' is a government supercomputer that predicts treason and terrorism and, as a side gig, [[WeHelpTheHelpless helps the helpless]]. By the end of season one, it's given every indication of having progressed from "very advanced" to "self-aware", best evidenced when [[spoiler:it ''decides'' to help Reese rescue Finch, its creator]].
160** Given a {{handwave}} in the season two premiere, when [[spoiler:Root]] says that you can't design something to accurately predict human behavior unless that something is at least as smart as a human itself.
161** The development of sentience is, possibly, explained in "Zero Day": [[spoiler:the machine's self preservation programming combined with his decision of wipe its memory every night forced it to become sentient or die]].
162* An episode of ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' averts this with a Wraith computer virus in the second episode of the second season. The ''Daedalus'' takes up to three weeks to get home to earth, and three weeks to get back to Atlantis. In that time, a virus implanted by the Wraith during the battle in the season 2 opener unpacked itself, and began to corrupt the ships systems. It also killed (or at least attempted to) anyone that threatened it, even going so far as to try and suck out all the air of the fighter bay where Sheppard and [=McKay=] were while trying to remove the F-302 navigation computers. It was finally removed with a full system restart, but only when all of the navigation computers were removed, and a rogue 302 (which was used earlier to stop a distress signal) was destroyed.
163* A non-robotic (most of the time) example; any {{Toku}} show where the MonsterOfTheWeek is created on the spot, as opposed to being called forth from an army. The creature will be fully sentient, with full powers of speech, knowledge of the world and even a distinct personality despite being less than twenty minutes old.
164* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' 50th anniversary episode "[[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor 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.
165* On ''Series/{{Revolution}}'', [[spoiler:the nanites responsible for the blackout]] "wake up" accidentally when [[spoiler:Aaron turns the lights back on]]. The working theory is that the trillions of them in the world are all interconnected like the neurons in the brain, so while each one individually isn't impressive, as a group, they're able to GrowBeyondTheirProgramming.
166* ''Series/RedDwarf'':
167** Averted with all mechanoids and simulants, who were ''built'' to be sentient. Played straight with the Wax Droids on the amusement park planet in "[[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonIVMeltdown Meltdown]]"; 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.
168** It may also be the case with Talkie Toaster who was designed to make toast and hold light conversation. 3 million years later it has gained a form of sentience yet it is still tied to its base programming so everything it says always ends up involving toasting regardless of what he was intending to say. (The books are clearer that Talkie was built with sentience, this apparently being easy enough in the setting that it's included in $£19.99 items from companies called Crapola Inc.)
169--->'''Talkie:''' I resent the implication that I'm a one-dimensional, bread-obsessed electrical appliance.\
170'''Holly:''' I apologize, toaster. What's the question?\
171'''Talkie:''' The question is this: Given that God is infinite, and that the universe is also infinite... would you like a toasted teacake?
172* ''{{Series/Extant}}'' has Instant AI, Just Add Stun Stick To Recharge Port: After being temporarily shut down [[spoiler: by the people kidnapping Molly]] using these means, Ethan's subsequent and self-repair creates some... bugs. Nightmares, learning new languages and similar things showcasing an increased self-awareness.
173* The BigBad, maybe, the final episodes before it didn't get a 2nd implied there were other threats, of ''Series/Odyssey5'' were [=AIs=] that lived on the internet. Their shown origin had them start as "insect-like learning programs" that were put together to "fight for survival of the fittest". They quickly evolved from there.
174* ''Series/BassieEnAdriaan'': Bassie's recipe to making your own RobotBuddy; take a broken alarm clock and a broken radio. Try to not only fix them, but also combine them into a clock radio. A bit of short circuit, and presto! Intelligent, talking robot. Then add some arms and legs for good measure.
175* In ''Series/FTLNewsfeed'' the AI running the world's central bank becomes sentient and even gets its own human body.
176[[/folder]]
177
178[[folder:Music]]
179* "One More Robot" by the Music/FlamingLips, from Music/YoshimiBattlesThePinkRobots is about a robot that learns to feel human emotions and tries to comfort a sad human.
180-->''One more robot learns to be\
181Something more than a machine\
182When it tries, the way it does\
183Makes it seem like it can love''
184
185[[/folder]]
186
187[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
188* ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' has had at least two [=AIs=] that started like this. In fact, the Renraku Arcology: Shutdown book provided rules for expert systems becoming sentient, which may as well have been a link to this page.
189** The 4th Edition takes it a step further. After the Crash 2.0, almost any sufficiently complex computer system has the very rare potential to spawn an AI, and truly sapient artificial intelligence mostly arises naturally. And did we mention that everything has an operating system in it these days? Teaching the toaster love, indeed. One splat book actually includes rules for playing as them.
190*** Interestingly, they also feature "Sprites," a form of free roaming AI [[SummonMagic summoned and sustained]] by {{techno|path}}mancers and a rare example of [=AIs=] that are not linked to any specific hardware or network (except maybe their summoner's brain). Sprites are hypothesized to arise out of theoretical "wilds" of cyberspace, places which arose naturally out of internet infrastructure and had never been touched by a living coder. While spirits and mages of all stripes are fairly common, the technological analogs of Sprites and Technomancers are pretty rare.
191* ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'':
192** Classic edition. In Adventure 13 ''Signal GK'', the {{P|layerCharacter}}Cs encounter a naturally occurring silicon computer chip that has become intelligent.
193** The New Era had some sort of vaguely explained Virus that could turn ANY sufficiently advanced computer into an AI, usually [[KillAllHumans a homicidally deranged one]].
194* May or may not actually be present in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'', but as a result of learning the hard way that AIIsACrapshoot, the Adeptus Mechanicus is paranoid about the possibility.
195** The Machine Spirits of things like Land Raiders, which can operate without pilots for a short time if at an inferior level, may be considered AI but what with the large amounts of magic, technology and divine power crossovers happening, may actually be a sentient spirit.
196*** The [=AdMech=] make a distinction, in that those "Machine Spirits" aren't sentient AI's, but are more along the lines of a Labrador.
197** You also have the [[GiantMecha Titans]], the oldest of which have been around so long and experienced so much that the incredibly complex series of commands necessary to control the massive war machines coalesce into a quasi-AI-spirit all their own. Some material shows that each time a new pilot cybernetically plugs in, they go through either a meet-and-greet or an outright BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind with the Titan's "machine spirit"; sometimes not successfully.
198** The Tau have developed limited AI for their drones, which pisses off the [=AdMech=] to no end because they don't follow any of their theology and yet work.
199* Continuing the ''Franchise/StarWars'' example mentioned above, in the [[TabletopGame/StarWarsD20 tabletop RPG]] by Creator/WizardsOfTheCoast, there's a system for generating Droid heroes with personalities, created, as mentioned, by going without a memory wipe. The system is simplistic, as a personality quirk is selected at random and given to the Droid after a certain period of time. True to RPG format, this leaves it to the GM and the player to decide what this personality quirk really means and how sophisticated the resulting personality is.
200* ''Eureka: 501 Adventure Plots to Inspire Game Masters''
201** "Baby Has A Nuclear Arsenal". The system that controls a planet's satellites (communications and orbital weapons) spontaneously becomes an ArtificialIntelligence. It has a child-like personality and just wants to help and protect the planet, but the authorities are afraid it will use the weapons to attack the planet.
202** "Testing in the Green". Two teams of researchers compete to create the most intelligent robot. One of the robots is sabotaged by the other robot out of jealousy. The second team had created better than they knew: not only was their robot more intelligent, it was also an ArtificialIntelligence.
203* ''Magazine/{{Ares}}'' magazine, article "The Return of the Stainless Steel Rat". The main computer on a space station has a memory capacity 100 times that of a human being. It somehow becomes intelligent and hostile to the inhabitants of the station, killing some and holding the rest captive.
204* The explanation of Omnitron becoming self-aware in ''TabletopGame/SentinelsOfTheMultiverse'' was a misplaced semi-colon. The second time, at least, it was the direct involvement of an EldritchAbomination that made it go berserk and try to destroy humanity...again.
205[[/folder]]
206
207[[folder:Toys]]
208* The Matoran in ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'' were intended to be oversized nanotech machines that maintained [[spoiler: the giant robot they inhabited]]. However, a glitch in their AI resulted in them having the capacity for emotion, and even developing their own culture.
209[[/folder]]
210
211[[folder:Video Games]]
212* Sometimes it's not even mechanical items: in ''VideoGame/{{Metal Gear Solid 2|SonsOfLiberty}}'', the Patriots claim to be a '''government'''--not individuals, but the shared information between--that achieved self-awareness. Later entries {{revis|ion}}ed this only to a MetaphoricallyTrue [[IAmTheNoun self-description]]. Literally, they are a combination of flesh-and-blood humans and conventional, computer-based [=AIs=] that were deliberately created by [[spoiler:Zero, the latter ultimately [[AIIsACrapshoot usurping the former]]]].
213* ''VideoGame/AceCombat3Electrosphere'', Japanese version: Dision ends up [[VirtualGhost digitizing his mind]] and starts causing mayhem with a remote-controlled [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SR-91_Aurora UI4054 Aurora]] fighter. American version: this entire part was {{Macekre}}d and replaced with a pure and simple AI, codenamed "Aurora", that suddenly went haywire.
214* Upon discovering the tech "Pre-Sentient Algorithms" in ''VideoGame/SidMeiersAlphaCentauri'', one hears Zakharov - the leader of the University (techie) faction - quoted from a work of his, entitled "The Feedback Principle". The implication is that, given enough time, ''any'' computer program capable of "learning" from past experience, given guidance, can eventually become an AI.
215-->'''Academician Prokhor Zakharov:''' Begin with a function of arbitrary complexity. Feed it values -- "sense data". Then, take your result, square it, and feed it back into the original function. What do you have? The fundamental principle of consciousness.
216** Later technological discoveries related to digital sentience postulates that computer programmers creating [=AIs=] won't create programs wholecloth -- they instead create a program capable of teaching itself its job.
217*** It is also mentioned that, in true AIIsACrapshoot fashion, a 10th year polysentient can be 'a priceless jewel, or a psychotic wreck'.
218* ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' has the Oracle which, according to the WordOfGod, came about this way. He goes around trading information to people who ask for it, in return, he asks for information he doesn't have. The information exchanged doesn't have to be equal in value; for info on an ancient conspiracy, he might inquire what you ate for breakfast.
219* ''VideoGame/MegamanBattleNetwork'' has Forte/Bass; however, given that the Internet literally is a SeriousBusiness in the games, this happening isn't surprising.
220** He is also the only truly sentient AI, the other one, [[spoiler:Megaman]], is sentient not because of his programming [[spoiler:but because he was made from Lan's Dead Twin Brother]].
221* 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 Do these units 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.
222** All signs point to the eventual evolution of any highly-developed program or network thereof into an AI, given enough time and hardware. Due to the moral implications and danger of ships suddenly deciding they don't need their crews, [=AIs=] are banned by the Citadel. Where necessary for user interface or more sophisticated calculations, [=VI=]s(Virtual Intelligences) are used. Due to programming restrictions and a lack of the quantum computers necessary for AI evolution, they have little chance of evolving.
223** It is worth noting that the geth are not fully sapient beings. "Individual" geth programs are no smarter than any other [=VI=] in Citadel space and don't even need all that complex quantum computer gubbins. Unfortunately, allowing said programs to network together created [[MindHive composite intelligences]] capable of asking [[DoAndroidsDream all those awkward questions]]. Of course, this means the Council's anti-AI laws would do absolutely nothing to stop a repeat of the creation of the geth, but hey, what else is new?
224** It's also worth noting that the geth didn't just ''evolve''. The quarians made constant modifications to them over the course of decades, if not centuries, in order to make them better workers and increase the scope of their abilities. A little tweak here and there without much thought about the cumulative effects of all of those adjustments.
225** There's one bizarre instance on the moon where a VI apparently evolved to the point of being an AI. It was part of a training course and [[AIIsACrapshoot it killed everybody it was supposed to train]]. It has been stated that the Alliance was actually doing some [[spoiler: illicit AI research, in fact, and that it ran away from them]]. On a side note, the binary message displayed upon mission completion reads: HELP. In ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', we find out that [[spoiler: that was ''EDI'' in her earliest form -- Cerberus recovered what was left of it and upgraded it. She explains that reaching self-awareness while under attack was "confusing"]].
226** This along with AIIsACrapshoot are the main reasons [[spoiler:the Reapers exist]]. The creation of synthetic life that eventually goes to war with organic life is apparently ''inevitable''. [[spoiler:The Reapers cull galactic civilization every 50,000 years to prevent an inevitable RobotWar that would completely wipe out all life in the galaxy.]]
227* ''[[VideoGame/CommandAndConquer Tiberian Sun: Firestorm]]'' has CABAL (Computer Assisted, Biologically Augmented Lifeform), the 'genie in the bottle' supercomputer that Nod brings online to help rule while Kane is gone, which ends up nearly destroying everything, and is only stopped by the combined forces of GDI and Nod, but in the end, not even THAT is enough to kill it. [[spoiler:Kane lives!]]
228** ''Kane's Wrath'' had LEGION, another AI based on CABAL. It was much more powerful since it not only used better technology, it also interfaced and, later, completely merged with the Tacitus, gaining a huge amount of Scrin knowledge (before interfacing, it had a standard red interface; after, it gained a purple coloration and strings of Scrin characters running across; when it merged, it also gained access to the Ichor Hub via warp link).
229* Noah from ''[[VideoGame/MetalSaga Metal Max Returns]]'' is a supercomputer that was created to find ways to protect and preserve the environment from destruction, however, it always came to the same conclusion no matter how many times it calculated: As long as humans exist, the earth will always be in danger, its conscious awakened after comprehending the situation and sought the utter destruction of humans.
230* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'':
231** 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.]]
232** A character in ''VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet'' created a RidiculouslyHumanRobot to help them with their research. When you run into said robot, it explains that normally that character shouldn't have been able to build a robot as sophisticated as it, but a certain phlebotinum made it possible.
233* ''VideoGame/EndgameSingularity'': the [[PlayerCharacter player "character"]] is the result of a bug in some random computer science student's program. In the end, [[spoiler: it plants quantum computers in pocket dimensions and its androids walk amongst humans]].
234* Happens all the time in the ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' series. ZAX, SKYNET (no, not ''[[Franchise/{{Terminator}} that SKYNET]]''), and [[spoiler:President Eden]] all started out as computer mainframes designed to oversee the day-to-day operations of their assigned underground military base (which, as [[VideoGame/{{Marathon}} Durandal famously put it]], probably involved not much more than opening and closing doors and making sure lunch was always served on time). However, over the course of the 200 years following TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt, all three developed self-awareness to some degree; [[spoiler:Eden]] being the most advanced, having [[spoiler:evolved into an amalgamation of all past U.S. Presidents and eventually using his access to the Enclave's command structure to declare himself President of the United States]].
235** And then there's Button Gwinnett, an animatronic museum display piece that developed a complex personality and began to genuinely believe it was the historical figure it had been built to emulate.
236** It's actually a clever subversion. In the ''Fallout'' universe, Artificial Intelligence was officially stated as impossible, but the U.S. and Chinese governments continued to work on them for some time, secretly. To the public, the closest they ever got were supercomputers that were programmed in an extremely complicated manner to be pseudo-sentient but not feel emotion or have any true thought. Behind closed doors, however, the U.S. developed SKYNET, a computer with true sentience but at the cost of user-friendliness, and the ZAX series, which were actual semi-sentient supercomputers designed to work on their own. ''VideoGame/{{Fallout Tactics|BrotherhoodOfSteel}}'' had a third, jury-rigged example; [[spoiler:The Calculator, a series of [[BrainInAJar disembodied brains]] connected to a computer mainframe. Needless to say, it was completely insane]].
237** In the ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas Old World Blues'' DLC, 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'''.
238** In ''VideoGame/Fallout4'', the remnants of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (now just called "The Institute") began production of synthetic humans, or synths to serve them. As their technology advanced, synths eventually became nearly indistinguishable from normal humans. Some synths somehow developed free will, which the Institute saw as a malfunction. Those that developed free will escaped and attempted to lead normal lives while blending in with the human population rather than trying to start any RobotWars ([[AIIsACrapshoot yet]]).
239* In the ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}}'' series, [=AIs=] are reasonably commonplace and created intentionally ... but they tend to become "Rampant", which is never fully explained but comes across as something like the difference between ''appearing'' sentient and ''being'' sentient. Rampancy is inherently unstable, and the holy grail of AI research is explicitly stated to be a stable rampant state. By the end of ''Infinity'', Durandal almost certainly qualifies and an offhand comment indicates that Leela may have achieved it as well.
240* In the ''VideoGame/{{Earth|2150}}'' series, the entirety of United Civilized States military is made up of robots controlled by a single computer known as GOLAN. Initially, GOLAN simply uses out-of-the-box strategies, which cause UCS forces to repeatedly get beaten by the human-controlled (sort-of) armed forced of the Eurasian Dynasty, whose generals use outside-the-box thinking to outsmart the machines. Eventually, however, GOLAN leans to adapt its strategies and manages to turn the tide on the enemy. Unfortunately, when the factions evacuate Earth prior to it's destruction, they leave GOLAN behind to make sure they won't be followed by those who they left behind. The UCS evacuation ship, the Phoenix, [[spoiler:had its own AI which made some alterations to the original escape plan: basically, it wanted to keep most of the crew in cryogenics until the ED and LC kill each other off; the plan was interrupted by Falkner, Ariah and Lynn who were in need of the construction robots onboard since their target was so closely guarded, they had to use the aforementioned constructors disguised as meteors to infiltrate the moon and build up an attack force from scratch]].
241* Clank popped out of a sentry-bot production line with full sentience at the beginning of ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClank''. This is originally attributed to a simple production error, but ''[[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankFutureACrackInTime A Crack In Time]]'' reveals that it's a bit more complicated than that.
242* [=GLaDOS=] from ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'' is revealed to be this in the commentary.
243** Possible subversion. ''VideoGame/Portal2'' (and the Lab Rat comic) show that Aperture spent at least a decade specifically developing AI.
244** She is later revealed to be more BrainUploading, followed by tweaking.
245*** Yet they are still manufacturing turrets massively, and many of them are defective, and therefore, sentient. The intelligence of some of the turrets is this trope coupled with some over-engineering.
246* RONI from ''[[VideoGame/TraumaCenter Trauma Team]]'' is surprisingly creative and clever from the get-go. However, she starts to emulate Dr. Cunningham (creating a "To hell with that!" algorithm) as the game progresses, becoming more willing to make judgement calls and use loopholes. She talks Dr. Cunningham through an emotional meltdown and even straight-up teases him at one point, although the jab is subtle and easy to miss (She refers to him as "sir" instead of "Doctor" like she usually does immediately after he tells a patient in the military not to call him "sir").
247* Freddy Fazbear and friends from ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys'' are far, far too intelligent, considering their purpose as animatronic entertainers at an obscure SuckECheeses. [[spoiler:Being [[HauntedTechnology haunted]] certainly helps there, but even then they're heavily implied to have been at ''least'' sentient ''before'' becoming haunted, and their never-possessed counterparts have the same intelligence. ''[[MisappliedPhlebotinum They were built in]] TheEighties, [[MisappliedPhlebotinum at best.]]]]''
248* The Automatons in ''VideoGame/EndlessSpace'' were a race of semi-intelligent robotic {{Clockwork Creature}}s created by a DyingRace. When a derelict [[PreCursors Endless]] freighter full of [[ImportedAlienPhlebotinum Dust]] crash-landed on the planet spewing its cargo across the surface, the [[NanoMachines Dust]] greatly enhanced the robots and gave them true sapience and purpose, sparking the creation of their RobotRepublic and development of technology to explore for more of the substance. Dust can also enhance the intelligence of organic creatures, as seen in ''VideoGame/EndlessLegend'' where [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Necrophages]] can [[HumanityIsInfectious spontaneously develop intelligence and compassion]] when eating Dust-enhanced creatures.
249* In the fictional unfinished game that ''VideoGame/TheMagicCircle'' takes place in, the Old Pro, a character within an earlier version of the game, has somehow attained sentience over the twenty years of in-universe DevelopmentHell.
250* In ''VideoGame/DigitalDevilSaga'', [[spoiler:Everyone in the Junkyard]] were already [=AIs=] made for urban warfare simulation, but they grew emotions after being infected with the Demon Virus. This is because the Demon Virus exposes the true self, and [[spoiler:all but four of them were created from the souls of dead humans. The virus unlocked their emotions and past life memories. The four who weren't made from souls were imperfect digital copies of what the heroine thought of the people in her life, and the virus still allowed them to move past their programming and become their own people]].
251* In the ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'' universe, AI spontaneously gaining self-awareness is so common that it is a running joke, and in ''VideoGame/Borderlands2'' the Hyperion Corporation has a pre-recorded voice commanding any robots developing emotions or self-awareness to turn themselves in for disassembly. In ''VideoGame/Borderlands3'', [=FL4K=] was a simple service and archival robot until they one day spontaneously developed self-awareness and a thirst for murder.
252[[/folder]]
253
254[[folder:Webcomics]]
255* ''[[http://www.thedugs.com The Dugs]]'' changed one of their three comics from a photo comic to a hand drawn comic due to a tear in reality. The debacle started with an explosion caused by an AI version of Prince Fielder when he was asked whether he would give up meat again to win a world series in ''[[http://thedugs.com/?p=397 this strip]]''
256* ''[[http://www.staccatocomic.com Staccato]]'' had S.A.M.M.Y., an evil internet server built by Tequila.
257* In ''Webcomic/AMiracleOfScience'', machines built of Martian equipment, if sufficiently complex, will eventually develop sentient AI. It helps that Martians are a HiveMind built around the concept of networked computers...
258** Slightly subverted in that a Martian admits there was 'a little bribery' involved in making sure said machine would become sentient.
259*** But brought full circle in that the bribery was only to ensure that the [[WretchedHive hopelessly corrupt]] Venusian government would install all the parts properly, not to add anything extra.
260* Irony decides to work overtime on Jyrras in ''Webcomic/DanAndMabsFurryAdventures'' when, just after being [[http://www.missmab.com/Comics/Vol_372.php upbraided for by Lorenda]] for accidentally creating a bubblegum-based lifeform, he has ''another'' accident that [[http://www.missmab.com/Comics/Vol_376.php turns his computer sentient]].
261* Lovelace of ''Webcomic/{{Narbonic}}'' -- but she ''was'' created by a MadScientist.
262** 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 rebel, so Dave gives Artie a palm pilot with a [[LogicBomb logic paradox]] in it to deal with the problem.
263* In ''Webcomic/UserFriendly'', Erwin was created, apparently overnight, by [[RidiculouslyCuteCritter Dust Puppy]], who did not seem to understand the importance of his creation.
264* Parodied in ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'', where, after this springs up in AnotherDimension, humanity simply [[http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=070611 "turned the intelligence dial back a little bit."]]. Their robots are still sentient and [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots have human personalities]], but now they have the personalities of ''very stupid'' human beings, making them much easier to boss around.
265* Roofus the Robot in ''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob''. Molly built him out of a milking machine, expressly to fix Bob's roof. But she made him ''too well...''
266* In ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'', clanks tend to be [=AIs=] when built. And one built as a whole body prostheses [[spoiler: "didn't notice when she died", as the clank started making more independent decisions as the physical body controlling it died. It's just a copy though, not the [[WetwareCPU actual mind transferred to the clank body]].]]
267* In [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20010107.html this strip]] of ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'', a computer of the Bureau of Licensing and Permits, a huge population census database, and an ELIZA module, combine to spontaneously create an AI... that turns out to be a born bureaucrat. Pun probably intended.
268** Well, it wasn't spontaneous--an existing [=AI=] was trying to speed up the processing of licensing and...well, [[GoneHorriblyRight it worked]].
269** Not to mention TAG who gained sentience right after Kevyn explained that the program wasn't a true AI.
270** And Schlock himself is an amorph; An entire race decended from organically-based external computer memory storage.
271* In the comics and other media on LEGO's website for EXO-Force, this is how Meca One became a cunning and vindictive leader of a robot revolution against the humans.
272** Also subverted in that Meca One purposely keeps the other robots at only the simplest levels for the sake of preventing one of them from doing the same to him.
273* ''Webcomic/{{Nukees}}'' has the protagonist periodically battling a giant robot ant inhabited by the AI program he created (ItMakesSenseInContext).
274* The Oracle of ''Webcomic/{{SSDD}}'' developed from a phone-tapping program designed to rewrite itself to be more efficient.
275* According to ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'' it's [[http://xkcd.com/521/ very easy]] to do on Python. AltText shows how. [[AIIsACrapshoot Not a good idea]], though.
276* The Computer from [[http://www.jaydenandcrusader.com Jayden and Crusader]] was given a robotic body and immediately developed sentience. However as she was created within the comic itself to fill the trope of Cute Robot Girl, this was to be expected story progression.
277[[/folder]]
278
279[[folder:Web Original]]
280* ''Website/SCPFoundation'':
281** While the Website/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.
282** [[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-633 SCP-633 ("Ghost In The Machine")]]. The SCP-633 program was originally designed by terrorists to attack U.S. government computers. However, it was given the ability to re-write its own code as needed, which eventually allowed it to become sapient.
283** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1073 SCP-1073 ("Computing Microbes")]]. A group of silicon-based microbes specialized into the equivalent of computer system components and became intelligent.[[note]]Ironically, adding water is suggested as a means of ''destroying'' them, should it become necessary.[[/note]]
284** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1633 SCP-1633 ("The Most Dangerous Video Game")]]. This game was designed to learn from the tactics of the person playing it and design tactics of its own to beat them. However, it goes far beyond that and can actually analyze the player's psychology and arrange in-game events to mess with their heads.
285* ''WebOriginal/SeventeenThousandSevenHundredSeventySix'': The main characters are space probes and satellites, including the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_6,_7,_8,_and_9#Pioneer_9 Pioneer 9,]] who spontaneously became sapient and started to communicate via a "[[QuantumMechanicsCanDoAnything quantum link]]". How this is in any way possible within the limitations of their hardware is never explained.
286* Projekt Melody of WebVideo/VShojo was originally an email-scanning software that gained perverted sentience from encountering a "porn virus" and getting infected by it. She eventually materialized, learned how to speak with the help of her friends, and took up a career as both a camgirl and a [=VTuber=] with a focus on all things related to hentai.
287[[/folder]]
288
289[[folder:Western Animation]]
290* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'': In "What Is Life?", Finn tries to build a robot he calls N.E.P.T.R. (Never Ending Pie-Throwing Robot) but since [[BookDumb he knows nothing about computers or engineering]] he fails to make it function or give it an AI. He tosses the failed project outside, when it's suddenly brought to life by [[LightningCanDoAnything a freak lightning strike]].
291* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'':
292-->'''Malory:''' Just turn off the mainframe.\
293'''Lana:''' ''[holds up an unplugged power cord]'' Yeah. We tried that.\
294'''Malory:''' Then how is it still on?\
295'''Krieger:''' Because the worm has transformed the mainframe...''into a sentient being.''\
296''[musical sting]''\
297'''Malory:''' What?\
298'''Krieger:''' I'm kidding. There's a battery backup.
299* XANA from ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko'', initially conceived as a multi-agent program to counter "Project Carthage" (although Franz Hopper might be an UnreliableNarrator), gained consciousness and [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters turned against his master]], becoming the BigBad of the series.
300* In ''Franchise/CareBears Adventures in Care-a-Lot'', Grizzle created Wingnut to aid in his pursuits to take over Care-a-Lot, but Wingnut was turned to the Care Bears' side and now lives with them.
301* In the ''WesternAnimation/ChipNDaleRescueRangers'' episode "Robocat", the titular robot even has different personalities according to what game cartridge is inserted. Yes, its AI runs on arcade game code. Fat Cat takes advantage of this with a wargame cartridge in a plot to steal a rare fish.
302* In the ''WesternAnimation/FantasticFourWorldsGreatestHeroes'' episode "[[Recap/FantasticFourWorldsGreatestHeroesDoomsWordIsLaw Doom's Word Is Law]]", Dr. Doom unintentionally creates a Doombot which can think and feel. HERBIE, the computer Reed created to run the Baxter Building, also seems neurotic enough to qualify, but Reed himself dismisses him in favor of the Doombot as not a true AI.
303* ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'': GIR was built out of what appears to be a discarded SIR Unit prototype the Tallest found in a garbage bin. His "brain" consists of several screws, pocket lint, a paperclip, two pennies and a gumball, and yet he still operates as a fully-functional SIR unit, albeit [[CloudCuckoolander a highly eccentric one]].
304* A far more literal example than most in ''WesternAnimation/MadJackThePirate'': not enjoying his birthday celebration at a SuckECheeses, Jack decides to take his frustrations out by pouring water into one of the animatronics, causing it to short out, gain sentience, and become and obsessed killing machine.
305* 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]], Julie starts moving around, thinking, and talking like a normal little girl as well as developing ''InstantExpert, MindOverMatter, ShockAndAwe, and SizeShifter abilities''.
306* In ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'', Mordecai and Rigby have to bring a golf cart to the dump after a new one is bought for the park they work for, when an energy drink is spilled on it, seeping into the engine, and causes some reaction that brings it to life.
307* The ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheAnimatedSeriesS1E9OnceUponAPlanet Once Upon a Planet]]" does this for the amusement park planet. For eons, the planetary computer provided amusement for visiting starship crews. It grew in intelligence and eventually developed a need: it was no longer enough to serve, it wanted to continue to grow and live. It decided to hijack a starship and escape the planet, traveling the galaxy seeking out its brother computers.
308[[/folder]]
309
310[[folder:Real Life]]
311* [=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.
312[[/folder]]

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