The Only Cool A.I. Is a Tony Stark A.I.

Marvel’s latest adventure is VisionQuest, the third series in the WandaVision trilogy. Part of the show’s allure is the connection to the Vision’s (Paul Bettany) origin and one very important aspect of his character: His connection to Tony Stark’s (Robert Downey Jr.) A.I. systems. Now in the world of A.I., many of us don’t want to watch a show glorifying it. So I will you this one bit of respite: The only good A.I. is when it is a Tony Stark A.I. system.

A lot of VisionQuest is rooted in highlighting what each A.I. was used for to Tony. J.A.R.V.I.S. (James D’Arcy) was his first, used as his protection while building his Iron Man suit and his flight patterns. Then came F.R.I.D.A.Y. (Orla Brady) after Ultron (James Spader) turned J.A.R.V.I.S. into the Vision. F.R.I.D.A.Y. was the A.I. system that was with Tony when he sacrificed himself to stop Thanos (Josh Brolin).

Still, others existed. Like E.D.I.T.H. or Even Dead I’m the Hero (played by Emily Hampshire in VisionQuest) and Tony’s lovely robots Dum-E and U. Now, as we enter the age of ChatGPT and people asking an A.I. simple questions rather than their friends, the question about whether or not we need A.I. looms over us. So I pose this important alternate: We only love and support the A.I. systems that Tony Stark built.

Is this because all of my electronics are named after Tony’s A.I.s? Maybe! But there is also something more human and safe about the imaginary A.I.s of the Marvel Cinematic Universe versus what we’re dealing with in our real world. And VisionQuest said what if we put all the A.I.s in the mind of Vision and he was in charge?

Bringing the Band Back Together

Ultron and Vision have a complicated relationship. And when you think about it, Ultron is what we fear A.I. would turn into. But minus James Spader having a pretty great reaction to everything and anything happening to him. But a lot of what VisionQuest does within its first few episodes is establish that each A.I. system Tony built had a purpose and it wasn’t just to be your therapist because you refuse to talk to your friends and would rather ask Chat what to do.

And yes, it is a fictional world, but Tony’s A.I. systems do not drain our natural resources in the way that engines like ChatGPT are. Every time you ask Chat to make you a picture of yourself doing something silly, you’re draining the water supply. Tony was twelve steps ahead and his A.I. systems don’t do that.

All this to say that in a world where A.I. is bad and we all need to stop using it, it is kind of nice to have a show like VisionQuest that shows how A.I. can be used in a superhero setting instead of going online and seeing a bunch of dudes make weird A.I. pictures of women. Oh the world we could have if the MCU was real.