7 Scary AIs You Don’t Want to Cross in YA

Illuminae, by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
“Am I not merciful?” asks AIDAN, the insane spaceship AI that takes over after an attack leaves hundreds from a planetary settlement dead and the survivors scattered among spaceships including AIDAN’s. The rhetorical question describes AIDAN’s decision to release a virus among the remaining colony’s ships, thinning out an already diminished population. Good thing one of the survivors is Kady, a brilliant hacker who will let nothing stop her from seeing the stars. Told through a dossier that includes interviews, hacked conversations, and IM exchanges, Illuminae allows us to experience this harrowing story through a variety of perspectives…including AIDAN’s.

The Scorpion Rules, by Erin Bow
An AI taking control out of humanity’s hands is a fairly standard trope, but Talis makes things intensely personal to keep warring factions in check: Every ruler must give over one child as a hostage, to be killed if that country violates the peace. Greta, Duchess of Halifax and Crown Princess of the Pan Polar Confederacy, sees her safety threatened when another hostage, Elián, refuses to listen to Talis. But this human-turned-AI hasn’t kept the planet running by being stupid. In fact, Talis’ humor and occasional bursts of drama makes for a voice almost more compelling than Greta’s.

The Mayflower Project, by K.A. Applegate
When “Mother,” a sapient ship, plucks the survivors from the Mayflower Project—jettisoned from Earth after an asteroid hit in the hopes of repopulating the human race on another planet—it seems like the start of a beautiful new family. Too bad Mother, wandering space alone for millennia after being abandoned by her own people, has gone slightly insane. Behind her artificially created environments on the ship lurks a sinister plan to keep her “children” in line, and woe to anyone who tries to interface with Mother directly. And here we thought the Animorphs books were dark…

Lightless, by C.A. Higgins
Higgins’ debut also features a virus being spread across a ship—but in this case, the virus is brought by a band of pirates, or terrorists, who hijack the Ananke. The ship is named for the Greek personification of fate—a fitting touch, as the virus is what allows the ship’s AI to become sentient enough to struggle for control, sending messages like “There is no god but me.” As the AI coalesces into a mix of omniscient deity and bratty teenager, its “mother” figure, mechanic Althea, must draw on their bond to keep things in check before her creation outgrows her.

The Six, by Mark Alpert
Alpert, a contributing editor at Scientific American, wanted to look at the flipside of the Singularity issue: What would it be like to introduce human elements into machines? In this case, terminally ill kids get a second chance when their consciousnesses are mapped and uploaded into weaponized robots. But why the weapons? Oh yeah, because there’s a price: SIGMA, a rogue AI, wants to wipe out its human competitors, and these kids—like Adam, going from a human body suffering with muscular dystrophy to a perfect robot form—must fight it.

Willful Machines, by Tim Floreen and Jill Watcher
In Floreen’s future, many AIs are treated as terrorists, held prisoner by the government and interrogated about their plans. Not Charlotte, though—long gone rogue, she has organized attacks on humans in order to force the government to turn over the remaining AIs in custody. Her target? The President’s closeted son Lee, who’s too busy worrying about keeping his Secret Service detail from catching on to his crush on the new boy at school to realize that he might be a target. Until Charlotte starts attacking him, and Lee must recognize the extent of his father’s legacy.

The Risen Empire, by Scott Westerfeld
Having tackled the price of beauty in the Uglies series, Westerfeld turns to AI and fanaticism. The Rix are a race of machine-augmented humans, or cyborgs, who worship planetary AIs. Yes, artificial intelligences the size of a world. Well, the figurative size, as they’re really interconnected computer networks channeled through traffic lights and other public communications. But are the Rix’s rulers any worse than the immortal Emperor and his equally undead little sister the Child Goddess, who confer immortality on their people with the demand that they spend their endless lives worshipping them? When the two sides go to war, readers are hard-pressed to choose which side has a better cause.