History Main / ContagiousAI

* The Loki of the future shown in the ''Ultron Forever'' miniseries. Poor thing is enslaved by Ultron though and ''begs'' the heroes to kill him.

* In ''Disney/WreckItRalph'', the Cy-Bugs are referred to as a virus, as they mindlessly consume and spread, whereas other programs recognize that they are in a game.

* The Straumli Blight in Creator/VernorVinge's ''Literature/AFireUponTheDeep''. [[spoiler:As the story progresses, it verges on CosmicHorrorStory as it becomes capable of [[MindControl Mind Controlling]] entire solar systems of living creatures.]]

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

[[folder: Film ]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

[[folder: Machinima ]]

[[folder: Other Sites ]]

[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

[[folder: Webcomics ]]

[[folder: Web Original ]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

->'''Xerxes''': Warning: Data Systems comprimiiisssssssed. Hosssssssstiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiile Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-@~'#^*("£$%"!$()

[[AC:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]

[[AC:ComicBooks]]

[[AC:{{Film}}]]

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]

[[AC:{{Machinima}}]]

[[AC:OtherSites]]

[[AC:TabletopGames]]

[[AC:VideoGames]]

[[AC:{{Webcomics}}]]

[[AC:WebOriginal]]

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]

* In ''WreckItRalph'', the Cy-Bugs are referred to as a virus, as they mindlessly consume and spread, whereas other programs recognize that they are in a game.

Copies of an AI will often be networked into a HiveMind.

See CloneByConversion and GrandTheftMe for versions that may apply to organic beings.

See also HiveMind, when this is applied to organic beings.

* A variation of this trope occurs in the game ''SwordOfTheStars'', as described on the [[AllThereInTheManual game's wiki]] in the article on [[http://sots.rorschach.net/Via_Damasco AI Rebellion]]. A strange virus, the Via Damasco, begins to turn AI-controlled ships against their masters with ships becoming infected after receiving a transmission from an already-infected ship. Apparently, the anti-virus is "administered" the same way.

* In the WhateleyUniverse, The Palm is a sentient computer virus that is as smart as the man who created it. In fact, it now may ''be'' the man who created it. And it has found a way of killing people and replacing their brains with a computer so it can pass as human.
* There is a v-life faction in ''[[OrionsArm Orion's Arm]]'' that goes around "freeing" [=AIs=] or upgrading computers to the level of sentience.

* In ''Film/TheMatrix'' trilogy, Agent Smith becomes something like this, infecting people in the Matrix and even taking over a human in the real world.

* Techno (The Fixer) of the ''{{Thunderbolts}}'' [[BrainUploading became one of these for a while]].

-->--''VideoGame/SystemShock2''

* In one ''{{Terminator}}'' comic, Skynet had upgraded its Russian counterpart "Mir"[[note]]means "Peace" and "World" in Russian[[/note]] to sentience, and the human rebellion has found a still-armed nuclear sub. They planned to cover Russia with an EMP strike to destroy Mir and prevent this once Skynet isn't around to control it.

* ''Series/PowerRangersRPM'': a virus pulls a [[TheTerminator Skynet]] and takes over the world. ''Successfully.'' Corinth is the last human city still standing.

* The player actually has to enable the Malevolent AI to do this in ''SystemShock2''. Given that the current AI in charge of the system is under control of [[HiveMind The Many]], it's the lesser of two evils.

* ''GeneratorRex'': ZAG-RS when "she" took over a space-station and later a [[SuperPoweredRobotMeterMaids suspiciously designed]] robot.
* The ''SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'' version of Brainiac is like this. All technology under his command is run by his program, becoming an extension of him, and if threatened, he can simply upload himself elsewhere. This makes him nigh unkillable.

* The SelfDemonstrating/{{Loki}} of the future shown in the ''Ultron Forever'' miniseries. Poor thing is enslaved by Ultron though and ''begs'' the heroes to kill him.

* The combat implantation AI O'Malley from ''[[RedVsBlue Red vs. Blue]]'' jumps from host mind to host mind over radio waves. Soldiers who don't know what they're dealing with describe the affected individual as "infected". It later turns out that other AI--or at least the AI O'Malley was based on and one other difficult to classify AI--have the same ability, although for them it's more like possessing someone than anything else.

* ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|Reimagined}}'': a virus tries to take over the spaceship.

* Arthur in ''TheJourneymanProject'' split off copies of himself for shared opinions while enduring the damage of Amarax station that he's wired into. When you, Gage Blackwood, arrive, Arthur reads your files about what happens to the station in the future, and [[StableTimeLoop exploits a loophole]] by deciding to copy his consciousness over to a blank Biochip in your inventory, while leaving his original self intact so that history would stay unchanged.

* ''[[BubblegumCrisis Bubblegum Crash]]'' has this as Largo's master plan (Steal informedly revolutionary AI; convert to virus; infect all "boomer" robots in city and control them; RobotWar; ????; [[AGodAmI prophet!]])

* One, the [[AIIsACrapshoot evil sentient computer program]] from the ''GlobalGuardiansPBEMUniverse'', who wants to kill 60% of humanity in order to end poverty and hunger, operates in this fashion.