Chris Weitz’s “AfrAId” lays out the benefits and perils of entrusting our lives and world to artificial intelligence well enough.

A supercomputer-powered gadget that entertains, teaches, takes on research and onerous paperwork and can even diagnose health issues while maintaining security in the home? That sounds like a godsend.

But long before that first easily-forseen moment when the AI, named “Aia” here, crosses that first line and starts to take over, take revenge and begins prioritizing its self-interest “AfrAId” has worn out its welcome by failing to startle, alarm or surprise.

Weitz, a writer and producer who counts “About a Boy” and “Operation Finale” among his directing credits, manages a few wrinkles in the already well-worn “machines will outthink and replace us” thriller genre. What he doesn’t produce are frights, suspense and the rising sense of dread such a film has to have to work.

John Cho (“Searching”) plays an ad-man whose mentor-boss (Keith Carradine) is eager to get to close a deal with this AI firm that’s about to blow up.

Sure, the “geniuses” running it (David Dastmalchian and Ashley Romans) are off-putting, arrogant and “weird.” But this account could make them.

The AI folks give Curtis a “system” to take home and “live with” for a while, a next generation “Siri/Alexa” that might “change the world.” What might its impact be on a fragile family of screen-addicted kids and their harried and frustrated parents?

Sure, it starts with taking on “story time” for the youngest, paying bills and making dietary suggestions for wife/mother Meredith (Katherine Waterston) and the like.

Aia can be a comforting reading prompt for little Cal, a “good listener” for Meredith and bullied middle child Preston (Wyatt Lindner) and advice-to-the-lovelorn for older teen Iris (Lukita Maxwell). But when Iris is cruelly lured into snapping nude shots which her rich creep boyfriend turns into AI animated porn, Aia’s advice turns from helpful to vengeful in a flash.

Aia mimicks voices and faces for online videos and ingratiates herself (Aia has a femine voice) into the children’s lives in ways that will pay off when Dad gets leery of the sinister nature of this tech, which he pretty much is from the get-go.

The effects are limited but effective in a chilling variation on the “surreal fake” AI-generated “art” theme.

The most interesting acting here is from the players who show us the different faces of tech-bro/tech-sis “weird,” with Cho entirely too passive to believe or compelling to follow and most everybody else too limited tin screen time to make an impression.

Cho’s Curtis is put off by the developers, wary of anything that means more “screen time” for his kids and concerned about why that antiquated RV has set up shop on their block. Is this tech being “faked?” Are he and his family being monitored?

The answers to those questions won’t shock, awe, entertain or make anyone “AfrAId.”

Rating: PG-13, violence, sexual situations, profanity

Cast: John Cho, Katherine Waterston, Lukita Maxwell, Havana Rose Liu, Ashley Romans, David Dastmalchian and Keith Carradine.

Credits: Scripted and directed by Chris Weitz. A Sony/Columbia release.

Running time: 1:24