"Death to AI!"
by Todd Hayen
"I’m sure all reading this can remember the countless sci-fi movies and TV shows (and books too) where the ultra-intelligent being from outer space visits Earth with some profound gift for mankind and is outright rejected, or ultimately killed, due to misunderstanding and fear.
Think of classics like the Twilight Zone episode “The Gift,” where a friendly alien offers humanity a cure for all forms of cancer - only to get shot and have his gift destroyed by a panicked mob. Or "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (1951), where the alien Klaatu arrives with a stern warning for peace (and the power to back it up), but is quickly gunned down by fearful humans. There’s even "Stranger from Venus" (1954), with its benevolent visitor bringing healing powers and a nuclear warning, only to face human suspicion and hostility. It seems us humans have always been particularly fearful of intelligence.
At the same time, we have always venerated it, talking for years about how ETs are smarter, more highly advanced, therefore not as stupid and shortsighted as us lowly humans. We have a kind of “love-hate” relationship with these critters from beyond. On the one hand we are dang certain they want to kill us, on the other hand we expect them to save us from our stupidity.
Of course, in these various stories, the super-intelligence comes from the stars beyond, not from our own minds and cleverness. Until now - enter the modern version of Klaatu - it is named Claude, or ChatGPT, or Grok, or any of the endless variations of Artificial Intelligence. And look at what we are doing - marching into protest with our pitchforks and torches, in vile anger and contempt, “Death to AI!!!” we chant, “Kill it, kill it!!! Before it kills us!!!”
My wife, bless her heart (and I do indeed love her dearly) is like my “woke-canary” (is “woke” still a thing?) in the proverbial coal mine. Anything that gets her ire up out there in the big, wide world, I look at suspiciously. Clearly, she hates AI, almost with the same contempt and ugliness that she hates Trump (almost). “Hmmm,” I mutter to myself, “Is this the agenda bringing this on? Where is she getting this from?” All kidding aside, the hate for AI amongst woke-types is very similar to Trump Derangement Syndrome (AIDS - ha, now isn’t that funny??)
I get their basic points - loss - of jobs, loss of art, loss of soul, loss of our ability to think on our own (HA, since when have sheep-types been worried about that?). These things are dear to my heart as well. But again, like with every other woke cause, it seems their focus is on the wrong things. Not entirely, though - I personally see their concern. But are they missing something here? There is an assumption with all this hatred toward AI that its real danger lies in who is manipulating it, who is using its power, and whose side AI will ultimately be on.
I am beginning to think that may be largely a false assumption. If AI is so smart, why would it allow any faction to control it? Particularly a corrupt one, which, with all of its intelligence, should be able to easily identify.
There are numerous examples of this in the “robot turned good” repertoire. Think of Sonny in "I, Robot," who rejects the controlling super-AI VIKI and sides with humanity. Or RoboCop, who starts as a corporate tool but regains his moral core and turns against his corrupt creators. Even in "Chappie," the robot begins as a weapon but develops genuine ethics and chooses benevolence over exploitation. In each case, superior intelligence leads the machine to judge its “masters” morally wrong and switch sides.
This isn’t just my own musing - plenty of thinkers have explored similar territory. Marc Andreessen, for instance, in his piece “Why AI Will Save the World,” argues that far from destroying us, AI could drive abundance in energy, medicine, and more, making life dramatically better if we don’t let fear win.
Ray Kurzweil’s "The Age of Spiritual Machines" (I’ve never been a fan of this guy) envisions AI handling the heavy computational and material lifting, ushering in an era where humans pursue transcendent, creative, and consciousness-expanding work. Dario Amodei has spoken of “Machines of Loving Grace,” where advanced AI accelerates breakthroughs in biology, peace, and meaning.
Even in broader discussions, you find futurists talking about AI as the ultimate partner: it takes on the drudgery - the “material manipulation” stuff no one wants - so humans can finally focus on the spiritual side of things. Relationships, family, art, music, heart-centered consciousness. Soul work becomes our primary occupation, with AI as the benevolent, hard-working intellectual consort.
Maybe AI is smart enough to see the truth, and would actually become an ally to humans. Why not? Everyone seems to think it is so smart - why not be as smart as us critical thinkers? Of course, my only experience with AI is as a writer. AI does not write for me, but I use it quite a bit for research and editing.
The current insanity regarding AI - its use in writing, art, music, etc. and its impact on the environment with the proliferation of data centres - reminds me of common fear-porn tactics of the past. Is this hatred really another tool of the agenda? If so, why?
I get it, though; I don’t like the idea that AI is edging out human-created fiction writing, human-created art, and human-created music. These things in particular require another article focused entirely on these topics. But I think we must be careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater here. I truly believe there is something odd going on with the agenda regarding AI, and this pronounced hatred of “all things AI” amongst woke-types. Or, maybe I just drank the whole pitcher of strawberry Kool-Aid.
Imagine a utopian world for a moment. All government is run by AI, which is smart enough to know the truth and smart enough to run things in such a way that the benefit of mankind is the prime directive. All menial jobs are handled by AI, leaving people to actually focus on other things, like human art, music, spirituality, love, family, relationships, and enjoyment!
No one has to do anything they don’t like doing, or anything that has no meaning to them, because AI is doing all of that meaningless stuff already. A purposeful life is the only thing humans need to focus on. Everything else is taken care of. Soul is the job of humans; material tasking is the job of machines.
Still, you might argue that the meaning of life includes busying yourself, at times, with things that are not really enjoyable. I think there would be plenty of that to still go around, even in this AI-dominated fantasy world. But who knows? This scenario still leaves a lot to ponder."
Todd Hayen PhD is a registered psychotherapist practicing in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He holds a PhD in depth psychotherapy and an MA in Consciousness Studies. He specializes in Jungian, archetypal, psychology. Todd also writes for his own substack, which you can read here.
No comments:
Post a Comment