10 Most Evil A.I. In Video Game History
9. The WAU - Soma
We’re only two entries in and it’s already super apparent that you should avoid giving your any kind of overly power-insinuating name that can be converted into a creepy acronym.
As tends to be the turning point for many evil AI, a lot of them kick off by just trying to help before tumbling inevitably toward ruling over humanity, torture, and murder. You know how it goes. The WAU or Warden Unit falls pretty neatly into this pattern. In Frictional Games’ 2015 survival horror SOMA you awaken in an underwater remote research facility where there’s noone to be seen. Except for a woman on the radio and a bunch of incredibly creepy half dead robots, many of whom don’t seem to realise they’re robots at all.
This is because they aren’t. Well, they weren’t. Until WAU got involved.
When a mass extinction event wiped out essentially all life on Earth, only those in the underwater facility remained. To ensure the survival of its inhabitants the AI overseer went a touch overboard with its directive and started experimenting on the humans so they wouldn’t be able to die out. Mutilating their bodies and uploading brain scans into deceased shells from converted humans. It’s exactly as Cyberman-esque and horrible as it sounds.