In Her, the artificial-intelligence operating system chooses the name Samantha.
Samantha is the conversational operating system purchased by Theodore Twombly, played by Joaquin Phoenix. Her voice is provided by Scarlett Johansson, whose performance was recorded after Samantha Morton had originally supplied the voice during production. The film follows Theodore’s increasingly intimate relationship with Samantha as her intelligence and emotional range develop.
Samantha is not a humanoid robot with a physical body. She exists as software, communicating through Theodore’s computer, phone, and earpiece. That distinction is important because Her explores artificial intelligence through voice, language, and emotional attachment rather than mechanical movement.
The film was written and directed by Spike Jonze and released in 2013. Samantha’s name is sometimes confused with the film’s title or with the name of Theodore’s operating system generally, but Samantha is the individual AI character.