How Powerful Alphie Is & Could Become In The Creator

Warning: Spoilers for The Creator.

Alphie’s and her powers are the primary drivers of The Creator‘s storyline – hence, here is an explanation for the scale and potential of her abilities as an AI. Directed by Gareth Edwards of the Rogue One: A Star Ways Story fame, The Creator opens on a familiar note where it highlights how the development of advanced AI spirals into a conflict between humans and machines. However, as the movie progresses, it morphs into something more profound with its depiction of how AI advancements may not necessarily be as dark as they initially seemed.

To portray this, the movie features an adorable young AI character named Alphie (Madeleine Yuna Voyles), who sets out on a journey with John David Washington’s Joshua. What begins as a hunt for Joshua’s former partner and Alphie’s creator, Maya, eventually becomes a quest to bring peace to the world. Alphie’s supernatural abilities play a crucial role in this quest, especially towards the end of The Creator, making it hard not to wonder what more she is capable of doing as an AI.

RELATED: How Joshua & Alphie Are Connected In The Creator Explained

Alphie’s Powers & Abilities In The Creator Explained

Although The Creator does not explain Alphie’s abilities, she seems to have an advanced brain-computer interface that allows her to control any form of technology through her mind. For the most part of the movie, she uses her ability to turn off electronic devices and systems. However, she may also be able to wholly control them if she learns to evolve her abilities and establish a deeper synergy with electronic systems through her mind. The fact that she is able to stop NOMAD from firing missiles towards the end of The Creator suggests that her ability to manipulate electronics is already quite advanced, explaining why humans feel threatened by her.

How Powerful Alphie Could Become After The Creator

Unlike most other movies and television shows that portray AI in an evil light, The Creator uses its AI characters to highlight the flaws in humanity. It shows how AI creations are not inherently bad and, even if they develop consciousness like humans, they can still be as innocent and righteous as a child. The movie’s themes suggest that Alphie will never become powerful to a degree where she will threaten the existence of humanity. However, given how she is an evolving simulant and not a mere code as many insensitive anti-AI humans would call her, she will grow from strength to strength over time and may eventually even acquire the ability to have complete remote control over all electronic systems on Earth.

Her growth will also affect the entire AI community as she holds the key to advancing not only their functionality but also making them more human. The more the AI community evolves and grows using the advancements in her code, the more Alphie will be credited as the savior of AI. While Alphie’s rise to power could also have negative consequences, she stands more as a symbol of peace in The Creator. Even though humans call her a weapon, she never uses her abilities to cause destruction. Instead, she uses it to shut down devices and weapons from the war between humans and AI.

In a few early moments of The Creator, Alphie uses her powers to turn on devices like televisions and cars, suggesting that, if she wanted, she could become a weapon of mass destruction. However, Maya seems to have programmed her with a high sense of morality, which prevents her from misusing her powers. This suggests that even if she becomes incredibly potent after The Creator, her powers will likely benefit humanity and AI rather than pose a threat.

How Powerful Alphie Is Compared To Other Sci-Fi AI

AI has been portrayed in myriad ways in science fiction, but The Creator offers a paradigm shift with its depiction of morally right and empathetic AI. Alphie’s ability to empathize and resolve a global conflict proves that she is more emotionally intelligent than many humans, ranking her among some of the most socially aware sci-fi AIs like Data from Star Wars, Samantha from Her, Chappie from Chappie, and Ava from Ex Machina. When it comes to problem-solving and decision-making, Alphie may not be as powerful as other superior AIs like HAL 9000 from 2001: The Space Odyssey and TARS from Interstellar.

Owing to this, The Creator‘s Alphie needs an adult like Joshua to show her the way and help her determine what she must do next to save her kind. However, since she is only a child in The Creator, her cognitive capabilities will evolve, granting her advanced problem-solving and decision-making capabilities. In terms of physical strength, The Creator‘s Alphie may rank low compared to The Terminator and Ultron from Marvel, but her ability to control electronic systems, which will only improve over time, could potentially make her stronger than most AI in science fiction.