Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Watch an eerie, IBM Watson-made trailer for a film about the dangers of AI

Oops! We couldn't load this video player
Aside from being a Jeopardy! champion, IBM’s Watson has held positions as a health care adviser, teaching assistant, and meteorologist to name a few. Now, America’s most famous artificial intelligence has lent its intelligence to Hollywood, composing a trailer for 20th Century Fox’s soon-to-be released sci-fi horror-thriller, Morgan.

Morgan is about what happens when technology surpasses our control. In the film, a team of scientists create an intelligent android named Morgan (Anya Taylor-Joy), who possesses superhuman capabilities. Morgan learned to walk and talk in just one month. It was self-sufficient at 6 years old. Sometime later, Morgan intentionally injures a scientist in a temper tantrum, at which point a “troubleshooter” (Kate Mara) arrives to evaluate the android and determine if it should be terminated.

Recommended Videos

Fox approached IBM and asked if Watson could analyze the film and help create a trailer. To do so, the researchers first showed Watson the trailers of 100 horror movies and had the system analyze the visual, audio, and compositional elements of each scene to determine what elements made them tense, frightening, and thrilling. From facial expressions to tone of voice and lighting, Watson deconstructed the 100 source trailers like a first-year film student.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

Watson then watched Morgan in its entirety and selected 10 scenes to compose the trailer.

To be sure, Watson wasn’t granted complete creative freedom. IBM Researcher and filmmaker Zef Cota offered some creative direction and editing — likely eliminating any unintentional spoilers along the way. Watson’s trailer isn’t quite as compelling as the official trailer, but it is a testament to the increasing capabilities of intelligent systems.

Even more suggestive of the trend is Watson’s ability cut the trailer-making process down from a few weeks to just 24 hours, according to IBM.

Fox released its Watson-made trailer yesterday. The film is set to hit theaters tomorrow.

Dyllan Furness
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Dyllan Furness is a freelance writer from Florida. He covers strange science and emerging tech for Digital Trends, focusing…
The one football game you watch all year is coming. Here’s what you should know
Rob Lowe wears his NFL hat on TV.

Are you ready for some football? This weekend, the NFL will crown its winner at Super Bowl LIX. The Super Bowl is the NFL's version of a championship match. After an 18-week regular season and three playoff rounds, two teams remain — one in the AFC and one in the NFC. Now, these two teams will meet in the 59th edition of the Super Bowl.
While many fans have been following the NFL season, many new viewers will be tuning in for their first football game on Sunday night. Every year, the Super Bowl is the most-watched event in America. The Super Bowl is like a three-and-a-half-hour movie, from the action on the field and the sideline drama to the commercials and halftime show. Don't sweat it, if this is your first game of the year. We run over some of the basics of things you should know about Super Bowl 2025.

Who is playing in Super Bowl 2025?

Read more
If you have to watch one Netflix movie in February 2025, stream this one
Kevin Costner stares with cowboy flintiness in a still from Horizon: An American Saga—Chapter 1

The Western genre is not what it once was. There was a time when Westerns were like superhero movies. There were 40 of them in theaters per year, and most of them were bad. Today, Westerns have moved at least in part over to TV, and the ones that remain in theaters don't command the audience they once did.
Netflix actually has a pretty excellent selection of Westerns, though, and there's one in particular you should definitely check out this February. Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 was not the rollicking box office success that its star and director Kevin Costner may have hoped. The movie follows a group of disparate characters all moving towards the foundation of a shared town. The catch, though, is that this is just part one of a multi-part saga, and as a result, it cuts things off before the end of the story. All that being said, here are three reasons you should check it out now that it's on Netflix.

We also have guides to the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, the best movies on Max, and the best movies on Disney+.
Costner can be an excellent director
Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1 Movie Clip | Make It Known | Warner Bros. Entertainment
Kevin Costner's movies are not uniformly excellent, but Horizon is shot like an old-fashioned Western, with plenty of sweeping vistas and beautiful landscapes. More importantly, Costner understands which scenes to keep and which to cut in his three-hour epic.
Each of the myriad characters at the story's center feels fully fleshed out by the time their chunk of the narrative has run its course. The story may not be over, but Costner leaves you wanting more.

Read more
3 rom-coms on Amazon Prime Video you need to watch in February 2025
A woman and man sit on a patio looking at papers in I Want You Back.

February is the month of romance, with Valentine’s Day right smack dab in the middle. Whether you plan to go out for a fancy dinner with your partner, hang out with pals, celebrate with the kids, or down a pint of ice cream on your own, the best way to end the evening is with a good rom-com.
Of course, you don’t have to wait until Valentine’s Day to watch. These three rom-coms on Amazon Prime Video are available all month, so you can watch them at your leisure.
Need more recommendations? Then check out the best new movies to stream this week, the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, the best movies on Max, and the best movies on Disney+.
Modern Love (2019)
Modern Love - Official Trailer | Prime Video
An Amazon Original anthology series, the great thing about Modern Love is that you can read the recaps of each episode and pick the ones you want to watch. Since it’s an anthology series, each episode stands on its own and tells a different and unique story of love. The first, for example, follows Maggie (The Penguin’s Cristin Milioti), a single woman in New York who sparks up a friendship with Guzman (Laurentiu Possa), the doorman in her building. He provides dating advice as she navigates various relationships, not all of which he approves.
Then there’s the one about Sarah (Tina Fey) and Dennis (John Slattery), a married couple trying to salvage what’s left of their relationship, or another episode about a middle-school girl named Katie (Lulu Wilson) trying to reconcile her feelings for her schoolmate Alexa (Grace Edwards). Each story is refreshingly different, from sappy to sweet and heartwarming to touching, and the cast list through the two seasons is impressive.

Stream Modern Love on Amazon Prime Video.
Some Like It Hot (1959)
Some Like It Hot (1959) Trailer | MGM Studios
More of a screwball comedy than a romance, Some Like It Hot hits all the right notes of a solid rom-com with some 1950s flair. Joe (Tony Curtis) is a saxophone-playing, impulsive womanizer with a penchant for gambling, and Jerry (Jack Lemmon) is his anxious friend. When they accidentally witness a murder, they flee by disguising themselves as women and joining an all-female band. When Joe and Jerry meet the band’s singer, Sugar (Marilyn Monroe), they are both smitten. However, flirting is a challenge since she doesn’t realize that they’re men and confides in them as female friends.
Once they arrive at their destination of Miami, Joe tries to pursue Sugar under a different male persona while an aging millionaire takes a liking to “Daphne,” who is really Jerry, unaware that “she” is a man. Plenty of hijinks ensue, and the ride is worth a watch. Some Like It Hot earned six Academy Award nominations and is widely considered to be one of the best movies ever made.

Read more