Frankenstein complex
In plain wordsIsaac Asimov's name for the fear that intelligent machines will turn on the people who made them, after Mary Shelley's novel about a scientist destroyed by his own creation.
The fear that artificial beings — robots and, by extension, AI systems — will rebel against, supplant or destroy their creators. Isaac Asimov named it to criticize what he saw as a lazy plot convention of early science fiction and an irrational public prejudice; his own robot stories, governed by the Three Laws of RoboticsThree Laws of Robotics, n.: Three rules that science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov built into his fictional robots — do not harm people, obey orders, protect yourself — in stories that mostly show how such simple rules go wrong., portray machines built with safeguards and treat the complex as a commercial obstacle robot makers must manage. In later usage the term describes cultural anxieties about AI in surveys and media studies, sometimes contrasted with friendlier depictions of robots in Japanese popular culture, and is invoked, often dismissively, against arguments about existential riskexistential risk, n.: A danger that could end humanity, or shut it out of a good future forever. Some experts count advanced AI among the largest such risks; others think this worry is overblown.; risk researchers reply that their concern rests on technical arguments about goals and control rather than on a fictional trope.
Not every worry about autonomous systems is a Frankenstein complex; some are engineering problems.
Origin
Coined by Isaac Asimov and used in his robot fiction and essays, though the work in which it first appeared is not well documented; the name alludes to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818), whose scientist is destroyed by the creature he made. Public suspicion of robots drives stories such as 'Little Lost Robot' (1947), and the term recurs in Asimov's later robot novels and essays.
Related
- Three Laws of RoboticsThree Laws of Robotics, n.: Three rules that science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov built into his fictional robots — do not harm people, obey orders, protect yourself — in stories that mostly show how such simple rules go wrong.
- Isaac AsimovIsaac Asimov, prop. n.: A Russian-born American science-fiction writer and biochemist who invented the Three Laws of Robotics and is credited with the first use of the word 'robotics'.
- SkynetSkynet, prop. n.: The military computer network in the Terminator films that becomes self-aware and tries to wipe out humanity; now everyday shorthand for the fear of AI turning against people.
- HAL 9000HAL 9000, prop. n.: The calm-voiced spaceship computer in the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey that turns against its crew; still the best-known picture of a machine putting its goals ahead of human lives.
- uncanny valleyuncanny valley, n.: The eerie feeling people get from robots, dolls or computer-made faces that look almost, but not quite, human: liking grows with human likeness, then suddenly plunges.
- existential riskexistential risk, n.: A danger that could end humanity, or shut it out of a good future forever. Some experts count advanced AI among the largest such risks; others think this worry is overblown.
- Butlerian JihadButlerian Jihad, prop. n.: In the Dune novels, an ancient human revolt that destroyed every thinking machine and banned them for good; in AI debates, a name for any call to stop or outlaw advanced AI.
Mentioned in
HAL 9000HAL 9000, prop. n.: The calm-voiced spaceship computer in the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey that turns against its crew; still the best-known picture of a machine putting its goals ahead of human lives., SkynetSkynet, prop. n.: The military computer network in the Terminator films that becomes self-aware and tries to wipe out humanity; now everyday shorthand for the fear of AI turning against people., Three Laws of RoboticsThree Laws of Robotics, n.: Three rules that science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov built into his fictional robots — do not harm people, obey orders, protect yourself — in stories that mostly show how such simple rules go wrong., Butlerian JihadButlerian Jihad, prop. n.: In the Dune novels, an ancient human revolt that destroyed every thinking machine and banned them for good; in AI debates, a name for any call to stop or outlaw advanced AI., clankerclanker, n.: A slang insult for robots and AI systems, borrowed from Star Wars, that went viral in 2025 as a way of expressing annoyance at, or rejection of, AI., Torment NexusTorment Nexus, prop. n.: A joke, from a 2021 social-media post, about tech companies proudly building the very dangers science fiction warned against; used to mock products that resemble dystopian fiction.