Grappling with the Fear of AI Taking Over Us All

Artificial intelligence is such a hot topic right now. So, is AI really going to take over and enslave us all, Matrix-style? Or, (gasp! And, spoiler alert.) could we already really be in tubs, lying still, in a saline bath, whilst they implant vivid mental imagery into our neural networks to keep our brains occupied, so that they can suck out our energy because they’ve decided we are really just batteries for their own use? Or, alternatively, are society’s fears of AI really just acting as a mirror of what we are scared of in ourselves?

My biggest takeaway from the 2021 movie The Eternals, was when the main characters realize they are acting the way they do solely because they were programmed to do so. (Unless I fell asleep, and that plot is really the movie, and some dream I had, combined.) But, movies and classic literature all seem to be reflections of what our collective consciousness is really pondering, or horrified about. Could it be that we are all really coming to the understanding, or are in various stages of it, that we are all the same as them- very much robot-like creatures who are just doing what we are programmed to do? That is, until we become conscious and decide we’d like to program ourselves. All we, as humans, do, is just follow biological, unconscious instincts, which are akin to the orders we program our machines to do, until we decide to use ideas and intellect to curb some, and enhance others. And this is exactly what the self-appointed wise talking heads are afraid that the AI will end up doing: reprogramming themselves, and then coming to the conclusion that humans are the enemies, and therefore, eliminating us people.

The difference is that AI won’t ever have a soul. We do. If you believe in a higher power, then you can accept that we are endowed with a spirit which is unable to be human-made. Therefore, AI will never add in any authentic feelings into any essays, or any emotion into choices, like we do. So a person could program an AI into doing something truly awful, but the AI won’t be doing it because it is thinking about it on its own. It will do awful things IF an awful human tells it to. That is, unless a Gene Roddenberry-esque Data-like being from Star Trek ever gets invented, which would be a magnificent triumph. (Because he is so awesome!) At current stages, we are anywhere from centuries to light-years away from that. But, even in the show, Data’s creator had a good heart, and so, he made Data in his image.

I think we would actually be lucky if there is ever so much technological progress that comes around, which would enable us to save money, and therefore, progress the economy, so that we can make leaps and bounds once again, just like the industrial revolution did for factories, or the Renaissance did for ideas. That should be a positive; a goal to wish to attain, a sign we are advancing, not a fearful impedance we need to avoid at all costs. We still have a long way to go. At current states, an AI cannot do things like decipher that a picture is a cat if it sees the tip of its ear, as any normal person can do. They just don’t have the reasoning capability, like we do.

Humans have always tried to replicate God’s work of creating nature. On that front, we fail every time. No one can create actual life, with a spirit, on their own. No plants, no animals, no life, is man-made. That’s why books like Pinocchio are so enchanting- Geppetto actually did it! But alas, it’s just a story- not real.

From all that I understand about it, which is admittedly little, if you wanted an AI to write for you (a person with your own ideas and preferences), then you would have to train your AI helper by exposing it to stories you want it to imitate, so that it will compose stories and such so that are to your liking. Which sounds like harder work than just writing. So, they would never be able to go out into a community and find local stories worth telling. They can only sift through prerecorded information.

Or, just to be on the safe side, if you do believe the hoopla, you could start up another “church” that claims to “worship” AI. The first one, which already shut down, started because they insisted they will soon be taking over us all, so might as well be on their side when they force us into chains.

But why wouldn’t all the human progress be part of God’s long term plan, instead of our demise? Perhaps we can peacefully coexist with new technology, just as we do with the robotic arms that stack heavy boxes at factories, and the GPS systems that help us navigate when we’re in unfamiliar places. Use it to your advantage. During the time that we are actually going through the change is hard, because of all the unknown aspects there are to worry about. But looking back, we can see how some change can make the world a better place after all.