The Changing
AI Narrative

The threat that the widespread and unrestricted use of artificial intelligence (AI) poses to humanity through the elimination of jobs and possibly entire industries is undeniable. While there should certainly be a place for it in small doses to enhance productivity, I see the relationship between humanity and the unrestricted use of AI in the same light as the relationship between the dinosaurs and the asteroid that exterminated them. However, unlike those extinct saurians that formerly ruled the Earth, we should have sufficient intelligence to be aware of what's coming our way and sufficiently proactive to stop it before its impact necessitates remediation.

While the above is undoubtedly true, there is a concerted effort underway to change the fear of sentient technology that modern humanity began to develop as far back as Isaac Asimov's groundbreaking novel "I Robot," if not before. Granted that the robot in Asimov's novel was relatively peaceful, the sentient robots/AIs that followed it were largely far from beneficial to humanity. Some notable examples of this are found in the following:

• 1. Star Trek gave us the rampaging M5 computer that rendered humans obsolete and treated friendly forces as deadly enemies;

  2. 2001: A Space Odyssey gave us the murderous HAL 9000 that killed its human charges;

  3. Battlestar Galactica gave us Cylon robots hell-bent on destroying all humans;

  4. The Terminator and its sequels followed Battlestar Galactica's lead and presented AIs that also sought the end of humanity;

  5. Colossus: the Forbin Project showed the danger of two rogue AIs taking over the world via their absolute control over the nuclear arsenals of East and West; and 

  6. WarGames provided a similar scenario when an AI could not differentiate between a game and an actual nuclear exchange.

Now, however, the narrative is one of kind, friendly AIs and the evil humans who want to destroy them. The reversal in outlook is nothing but a blatant campaign to brainwash the masses, and I despise those who spin the lie that AI won't damage humanity. The revised narrative foisted upon the public is from those who stand to gain the most from using AI, who stand to save millions or even billions by leveraging its use instead of human effort to create profitable content. Then again, given the major sources of our information are ultimately entertainment-focused corporate entities, it's not surprising that those same companies would produce content and subvert the integrity of its information outlets in support of their shared mission to sway the masses to side with AI.

Below is an excellent presentation from "The Film Theorists" on YouTube. It addresses the many concerns many have about AI and those who promote it.

-TechRider