The story has it that the name HAL was chosen because each letter is just one step ahead of IBM. However, this is pure coincidence, and in fact the first incarnations of the computer had a woman’s voice and was called “Athena,” goddess of wisdom. When someone pointed out the spurious association between HAL and IBM, Kubrick wanted to change the computer’s name and refilm the scenes but was dissuaded because of production costs. (For the record, HAL comes from “Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic” computer.)