Technology
Even J.Lo in a mech suit can’t save Netflix’s by-the-numbers AI thriller
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25460391/ATLAS_SG_00013R2_crop_.JPG?ssl=1 "Even J.Lo in a mech suit can’t save Netflix’s by-the-numbers AI thriller")
You would think that a sci-fi movie where Jennifer Lopez partners with a smart-ass, sentient mech suit to fight against her evil AI brother would be a little more fun. Alas, Atlas — Netflix’s latest attempt at a hit streaming action movie — takes itself far too seriously. It also fails to really dig into the complexities of the AI debate, despite essentially being a conflict between a friendly AI assistant and machine intent on a doomsday scenario. There are some funny moments, particularly the banter between Lopez and her mechanical companion, but every other part of the movie seems to be fighting against Atlas’ true form. This is a buddy comedy trying too hard to be a serious action flick.
Atlas takes place almost three decades after an uprising that saw an advanced AI bot named Harlan (Simu Liu) help liberate other machines, who then proceeded to bypass their security protocols and start a war with humanity. It’s a setup that echoes plenty of real-world concerns. Except, in this case, the AIs lose, and Harlan heads off-planet to lick his wounds — but not before issuing an ominous threat to the human population. Atlas (Lopez), the daughter of Harlan’s creator who essentially grew up with him as a sibling, spends the ensuing 28 years trying to locate precisely where Harlan went so the threat can be eliminated for good. The movie kicks off when she discovers that location after interrogating the severed head of an AI henchman.
The most important thing you need to know about Atlas is that she has grown to absolutely loathe AI and, by extension, most futuristic tech. She has the same fears many of us do (along with sci-fi characters like Will Smith in I, Robot), which are exacerbated by the fact that the tech around her can be hacked and exploited by Harlan and his associates. At one point, while briefing a group of soldiers, she says, “You can’t trust AI,” while handing out plans printed on paper.
This fear extends particularly to a device called a Neural Link (not to be confused with the Elon Musk-backed Neuralink), which lets a human mind connect directly to an AI companion. It’s a cool idea, but the movie never slows down enough to explore it in depth. Inevitably, Atlas finds herself with no choice but to use a Neural Link to connect to an AI named Smith (Gregory James Cohan) who looks just like Siri and is housed inside of a mech suit ripped right out of Titanfall.
Contrived as it might be, the relationship between Smith and Atlas is easily the best part of the movie. Atlas is cranky and sarcastic, and because of his adaptive learning capabilities, Smith soon becomes exactly the same. The AI swears and makes jokes, dishing it out to Atlas the same way she does to him. The banter is genuinely funny, to the point that, even though you can see it coming a mile away, their inevitable friendship still feels touching. It’s almost worth watching the whole movie just for its heartwarming finale.
The problem with Atlas isn’t so much that it’s predictable (though that doesn’t help, nor does its painfully generic vision of a sci-fi future). It’s that the movie doesn’t lean into this strength. Outside of Smith and Atlas, everything else about Atlas is self-serious and dull. Harlan is the biggest offender, played with a stilted effect by Liu that makes him more boring than scary. In a future where AI bots can mimic human beings perfectly, it’s confounding that the most advanced machine sounds like an old GPS giving directions. Overall, there’s a lot of wasted potential. In particular, the movie’s premise is a perfect framing for current AI debates — Siri vs. Skynet — but doesn’t take the opportunity to say anything new.
There are already plenty of recent movies that explore a potential AI future with a heavy dose of sincerity, whether it’s The Creator, Dead Reckoning, or even Netflix’s own Jung_E. Atlas adds nothing to that extensive body of work. Even worse, it fails to capitalize on its one defining aspect. The comedic moments are the best part of the movie, and yet they can feel out of place buried under everything else. Atlas was a chance to take an urgent AI conversation and explore it in an approachable Hollywood package. It could’ve been fun and smart — instead, like a lot of AI right now, it’s neither.
Atlas starts streaming on Netflix on May 24th.
When Oregon resident Isabelle Reksopuro heard Google was gobbling up public land to fuel its data centers in her home state, she didn’t initially know what to believe. “There’s a lot of misinformation about data centers,” she said. “Google has denied taking that land.”
Technically, she explains, The Dalles, a city near the Washington state border, sought to reclaim that land, “and Google is just a big, unnamed power user.” The city had in fact asked for ownership of a 150-acre portion of Mount Hood National Forest, claiming it needs access to Mount Hood’s watershed to meet municipal needs as its population — 16,010 as of the 2020 census — grows. But critics, including environmentalists, say the city is trying to secure more water for Google, which has a sprawling data center campus in The Dalles that already consumes about one-third of the city’s water supply.
This controversy made Reksopuro curious about the backlash to data centers being built in other communities. So Reksopuro, a student at the University of Washington who studies the connections between tech and public policy, decided to map it out. Using information collected by Epoch AI and data scraped from legislation on data centers, she built an interactive map tracking AI policy around the world. She designed it to be simple enough for anyone to use. “I wanted it to be something that my younger sisters could play through and explore to understand what are the data centers in the area and what’s actually being done about it,” Reksopuro said. She hoped to shift their opinions that way, “instead of like, through TikTok.”
Four times a day, the map searches for new sources and checks them against the existing database Reksopuro built out. “Once it does that, it will write a new summary, add it to the news feed, and populate it on the sidebar,” she said. “I wanted it to be self-updating, since I’m also a student.”
Reksopuro isn’t against data centers, but she thinks tech giants benefit from a lack of transparency around data center policies. “Right now, it’s this really opaque thing — and all of a sudden, there’s a facility,” she said. “I think that if people knew about data centers beforehand, it would give them leverage. They would be able to negotiate: ask for job training programs, tax revenue, environmental monitoring, things to improve their community.”
UCF commencement speaker Gloria Caulfield (University of Central Florida via Storyful)
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TOUGH CROWD: During a recent commencement ceremony at the University of Central Florida, a speaker was met with loud boos from the graduating class after declaring that artificial intelligence represents the next industrial revolution. Fox News Digital reporting captures this tense cultural moment, illustrating the mixed public sentiment and skepticism surrounding AI’s growing footprint in daily life.
A statue on the campus of the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida. (iStock)
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TECH DIPLOMACY: OpenAI is throwing its support behind the establishment of a new global artificial intelligence governance organization that would be led by the United States while notably including China as a member. Fox News Digital reporting examines the geopolitical dynamics and regulatory implications of this proposed framework as global powers race to set the standards for AI development.
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FBI Director Kash Patel listened as Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche spoke during a press conference at the Department of Justice on April 28, 2026, in Washington, D.C. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
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ROAD HAZARD: Waymo is issuing a sweeping recall of its autonomous vehicle fleet following a concerning incident that highlighted significant safety issues with the self-driving technology. Fox News Digital reporting outlines the specifics of the recall, the nature of the safety flaw, and what this setback means for the future of fully autonomous transportation on public roads.
BOTS IN THE BAY: A newly developed, artificial intelligence-powered robot has been engineered to seamlessly change and balance vehicle tires without human intervention. Fox News Digital reporting showcases this latest innovation, exploring how automation and AI mechanics could soon revolutionize the automotive service and repair industry.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks during the 2026 Infrastructure Summit in Washington, D.C., on March 11, 2026. (Kylie Cooper/Reuters)
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Microsoft Edge is adding a new feature that will allow its Copilot AI chatbot to gather information from all of your open tabs. When you start a conversation with Copilot, you can ask the chatbot questions about what’s in your tabs, compare the products you’re looking at, summarize your open articles, and more.
In its announcement, Microsoft says you can “select which experiences you want or leave off the ones you don’t.” The company is retiring Copilot Mode as well, which could similarly draw information from your tabs but offered some agentic features, like the ability to book a reservation on your behalf. Microsoft has since folded these agentic capabilities into its “Browse with Copilot” tool.
Several other AI features are coming to Edge, including an AI-powered “Study and Learn” mode that can turn the article you’re looking at into a study session or interactive quiz. There’s a new tool that turns your tabs into AI-powered podcasts as well, similar to what you’d find on NotebookLM, and an AI writing assistant that will pop up when you start entering text on a webpage.
You can also give Copilot permission to access your browsing history to provide more “relevant, high-quality answers,” according to Microsoft. Copilot in Edge on desktop and mobile will come with “long-term memory” as well, which can tailor its responses based on your previous conversations. And, when you open up a new tab, you’ll see a redesigned page that combines chat, search, and web navigation, along with the Journeys feature, which uses AI to organize your browsing history into categories that you can revisit.
Meanwhile, an update to Edge’s mobile app will allow you to share your screen with Copilot and talk through the questions about what you’re seeing. Microsoft says you’ll see “clear visual cues” when Copilot is active, “so you know when it’s taking an action, helping, listening, or viewing.”
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