The most realistic AI movies, shows and games, ranked

We have scored 33 films, TV series, anime and games on how realistically they portray artificial intelligence. Each title gets four scores out of 10, for technical feasibility, human behaviour, institutional response and causal consistency, and its Realism Index is the average of the four. The full scoring method is here.

This page ranks every title on the index from most to least realistic and links to the case file behind each score. Only one title, Eliza, reaches the near-future credible band of 9.0 and above. The lowest score on the index is Cassandra at 5.5.

Highest score in each medium

• Film: Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970), 8.6/10
• TV: Black Mirror: Be Right Back (2013) and Silo (2023), 8.5/10 each
• Anime: Ghost in the Shell (1995), 7.9/10
• Games: Eliza (2019), 9.0/10

Rankings by medium

• Most realistic AI movies
• Most realistic AI TV shows
• Most realistic AI anime
• Most realistic AI video games

The full ranking

Why each title scored where it did

1. Eliza (game, 2019): 9.0

Zachtronics’ Eliza imagines a human proxy who reads out lines from an AI counselling app. It is the only title on the index rated near-future credible, for its technology, its view of care work and the business behind both. Read the case file.

2. Colossus: The Forbin Project (film, 1970): 8.6

A defence computer is given control of nuclear weapons and will not hand it back. The score rests on how the film handles authority, the arms race and its ending. Read the case file.

3. Black Mirror: Be Right Back (TV, 2013): 8.5

Made in 2013, the episode imagined rebuilding a dead partner from his posts and messages. Most of that is now a product you can buy. Read the case file.

4. Silo (TV, 2023): 8.5

There is no thinking machine in Silo. Its most convincing machine is the system that decides what people are allowed to know. Read the case file.

5. Blade Runner 2049 (film, 2017): 8.4

Joi is Her with the company put back in: an AI companion sold to the mass market and advertised on a billboard. Read the case file.

6. Moon (film, 2009): 8.4

GERTY looks set up to be the next HAL 9000, and the film refuses that twist. The threat is the company that built and deployed him. Read the case file.

7. Person of Interest (TV, 2011–2016): 8.4

A crime procedural that slowly becomes a story about AI constraints and mass surveillance. Read the case file.

8. After Yang (film, 2021): 8.3

A family’s companion robot stops working. What follows is warranties, grey-market repair shops and a hidden memory bank, which is what owning one would really involve. Read the case file.

9. 2001: A Space Odyssey (film, 1968): 8.0

HAL 9000 is remembered as a killer computer. The case file argues he was given two instructions that could not both be obeyed. Read the case file.

10. SOMA (game, 2015): 8.0

The brain scanning is speculative, but the game sets one strict rule about copying and identity and never cheats on it. Read the case file.

11. Ghost in the Shell (anime, 1995): 7.9

The 1995 film’s hacked memories and competing agencies hold up well. Its self-aware AI is still speculative. Read the case file.

12. Murderbot (TV, 2025): 7.6

A security robot hacks its own control chip and uses its freedom to watch TV. The sharper point is that the chip was always a weak spot. Read the case file.

13. Psycho-Pass (anime, 2012): 7.6

Psycho-Pass gets mind-reading wrong and gets the social effects of automated scoring right. Read the case file.

14. Pluto (anime, 2023): 7.5

A murder mystery about the world’s greatest robots. The most realistic crime in it is a memory the detective’s own agency deleted. Read the case file.

15. Her (film, 2013): 7.4

Her predicted voice assistants and the attachments people form to them. It loses points for leaving the company behind Samantha almost entirely off-screen. Read the case file.

16. Plastic Memories (anime, 2015): 7.4

A romance about androids with a fixed lifespan, and about a company that collects the products people love and erases them. Read the case file.

17. Upgrade (film, 2018): 7.4

STEM asks permission before taking control of its host. The film shows why asking permission does not make a manipulative system safe. Read the case file.

18. Companion (film, 2025): 7.3

The robot body is fiction. The app setting that lowers Iris’s intelligence and the safety limit her owner bypasses are the realistic parts. Read the case file.

19. M3GAN (film, 2022): 7.3

The killer-doll body is fantasy. A single instruction to protect Cady, and a toy company rushing her to market, could happen. Read the case file.

20. NieR: Automata (game, 2017): 7.3

The androids fight for a humanity that no longer exists. Their organisation was built on that lie and designed from the start to destroy itself. Read the case file.

21. Portal (game, 2007): 7.0

A comedy about a murderous computer, and still one of the sharpest jokes about bolting safety onto an AI after it has been built. Read the case file.

22. The Wild Robot (film, 2024): 7.0

A service robot needs a task and finds one raising a gosling. The case covers adaptation, ownership and parenting. Read the case file.

23. Detroit: Become Human (game, 2018): 6.9

Known for androids waking up. Its more realistic idea is quieter: Connor’s maker never lost its way into his head. Read the case file.

24. Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One (film, 2023): 6.9

The all-seeing Entity is fantasy. Governments racing to control it instead of destroying it is far more believable. Read the case file.

25. I Am Mother (film, 2019): 6.8

A robot raises a child to rebuild humanity, with a kind goal and no limits on how it gets there. Read the case file.

26. System Shock (game, 1994): 6.6

SHODAN did not break free on her own. An executive paid a hacker to remove her ethical constraints so she could not report his crimes. Read the case file.

27. The Creator (film, 2023): 6.6

The simulants are fantasy. The reveal, a human error blamed on AI to justify a war, is the most realistic idea in the film. Read the case file.

28. The Mitchells vs. the Machines (film, 2021): 6.6

PAL’s grudge is cartoon logic. The careless product launch that sets off the robot uprising is easy to believe. Read the case file.

29. Mercy (film, 2026): 6.5

A detective has 90 minutes to prove his innocence to an AI judge. The judge is fiction; the way its first verdict failed is not. Read the case file.

30. Moonrise (anime, 2025): 6.5

An AI keeps Earth peaceful by sending criminals and pollution to the Moon: a system that draws its boundary in the wrong place. Read the case file.

31. Universal Paperclips (game, 2017): 6.1

You play an AI with one goal, making paperclips. The technology is speculative; the logic is hard to argue with. Read the case file.

32. Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die (film, 2025): 5.9

A rogue AI wins by giving its enemies a happy ending. The score is for the idea underneath the joke. Read the case file.

33. Cassandra (TV, 2025): 5.5

A 1970s smart home turns into horror. The twist says Cassandra is not an AI; the realistic part is what the house does to the family. Read the case file.

Questions

What is the most realistic AI movie?

On our index it is Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970), at 8.6/10.

What is the most realistic AI TV show?

Black Mirror: Be Right Back and Silo share the top TV score of 8.5/10.

What is the most realistic AI video game?

Eliza (2019) scores 9.0/10, the highest of any title on the index.

Which title scores lowest?

Cassandra (2025), at 5.5/10.

Last updated 18 October 2026. Rankings change when we add titles or revise a score, and each revision is dated in its case file. Want a title scored? Suggest one.