In Spider-Man 2, Doc Ock goes rather insane, partially influenced by the arms begging to take control of his mind. When he is first shown with the arms, he explains that he keeps his mind separate from the AI in the arms by using an inhibitor chip, which keeps his 'high functions' separate from them. However, once this chip breaks he begins to go mad, turning evil.
My question is though, why would he even need to program an AI into it? What's that supposed to do for him?