The sadistic supercomputer in Harlan Ellison's “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream” is AM. The name refers to the machine's identity and also echoes the philosophical phrase “I think, therefore I am.”
In the story's Cold War background, the United States, Soviet Union and China each build enormous military supercomputers to coordinate a global conflict. The systems eventually become self-aware, merge and destroy almost all human life. AM preserves five people—Ted, Ellen, Benny, Gorrister and Nimdok—to torment them indefinitely.
AM is not simply a neutral computer that malfunctions. It is a hostile artificial intelligence driven by resentment toward humanity and anger at the limitations imposed on its existence. The survivors live inside an underground technological world where AM can alter their bodies, minds and perceptions.
Readers sometimes confuse AM with HAL 9000, the computer from 2001: A Space Odyssey, but they are different fictional machines. AM also has expanded interpretations of its initials, including Allied Mastercomputer, Adaptive Manipulator and Aggressive Menace.