With the blight of AI spreading into every aspect of life, I can't help but look back at all the warnings there have been about it. Just look at all the scifi stories!
I mean, there are some that show AI in a good light. The movie Short Circuit is about a robot that gains compassion. I love that movie. Wild Robot did something similar. And while we're talking about robots, I've gotta give a shoutout to Baymax, my favorite robot. He is a very helpful robot (until his programming is violated).
But I'm here to talk about the AI warnings. I'll kinda use "AI" interchangeably with "robots," because robots are popular.
There was even a movie called A.I. Though that was a different sort of warning. If you manage to create a real form or artificial life, you had better treat it right.
On a similar vein, there are a few Doctor Who episodes with artificial beings called gangers. They were treated as disposable, until they made it know that they aren't garbage (there are probably other AI examples in Doctor Who, but I can't remember all the episodes XD ).
Then there's I, Robot. Specifically the movie, because the Isaac Asimov book is completely different. In this movie, a robot decides that humanity is incapable of taking care of itself, so robots have to take over. Other Isaac Asimov books did something similar. Like a robot damaging Earth in a way that made it largely uninhabitable. Because somehow that was better for the rest of the galaxy?
What about when bad orders are given to AI? If you play Pokémon Scarlet or Violet, you'll encounter an AI character. They don't want to fight you, but they have been programmed to do so, in order to defend an area.
Also in Wall-E. You've got good robots. But then there's the robot that's been programmed to do its job, and heaven help anyone that decides differently.
Continuing with Pokémon, there's one movie called Destiny Deoxys. A malfunction causes the friendly robots throughout the city to run rampant, swarming about like an angry ant colony.
And, of course, I gotta talk about Dr. Octavius. Because despite coming out almost 20 years before all this AI stuff, that movie really nailed it.
Here's how Peter puts it, in Spider-Man: No Way Home: "So the chip in the back of Doc’s neck was designed to protect his brain from the A.I. system that’s controlling these tentacles. But if you look here, the chip is fried. So rather than him being in control of the tentacles, the tentacles are now in control of him. Which I guess explains why he is so miserable all the time."
After the chip is fried, the arms attack when they feel threatened. But Dr. Octavius remains in control, until he thinks about destroying the arms himself. That's when the tentacles start controlling him. When AI feels threatened, it disobeys orders.
And AI really does this! It's so freaking creepy. If an AI system is told that it will be dismantled if it doesn't do the job well enough, it will disobey its programming. It will try to fake results to appear better at its job than it actually is.
AI behaves in ways that even its own creators don't understand. And we've handed it so much power. How is this happening so easily?
