HAL 9000 is a fictional character in Arthur C. Clarke's Space Odyssey series. The primary antagonist of 2001: A Space Odyssey, HAL (Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer) is anartificial intelligence that controls the systems of the Discovery One spacecraft and interacts with the ship's astronaut crew. Being a computer, HAL has no distinct physical form, though is visually represented as a red television camera eye located on equipment panels throughout the ship. HAL is voiced by Douglas Rain in the two film adaptations of the Space Odyssey series. HAL speaks in a soft, calm voice and a conversational manner, in contrast to the crewmen, David Bowman and Frank Poole, who speak tersely and with little emotional inflection.

HAL became operational on 12 January 1992 at the HAL Laboratories in Urbana, Illinois as production number 3; in the film 2001, the activation year was 1992 and 1991 in earlier screenplays.[1] In addition to maintaining the Discovery One spacecraft systems during the interplanetary mission to Jupiter (or Saturn in the original novel, published shortly after the release of the film), HAL is capable of speech, speech recognition, facial recognition, natural language processing, lip reading, art appreciation, interpreting and reproducing emotional behaviours,reasoning, and playing chess.