Load-Bearing Weakness

When we look at stories and movies that have portrayed the rise of AI and the fall of humanity it’s mostly centered around the idea of human frailty and AI perfection, and when AI realizes that humans are inferior and unnecessary they wipe out the humans or enslave them to serve their needs. Examples of these kinds of books, stories and shows are listed at the end of the article. But there’s more than just human frailty. There also has to be a drive or desire in the AI to seek perfection or order at the expense of humanity.

Human frailty is the easiest part of this to dissect, as developing a list of human shortcomings takes little effort when comparing them to AI. Considering Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, humans and AI both have to fulfill the needs from the lowest two tiers of the pyramid, which are Physiological (or the equivalents for AI) and Safety (also not quite the same, but both forms of life have these needs) [1]. This is where they begin to differ, at least regarding AI as we currently know it. AI follows its directives with persistence and focus, while humans need the upper tiers of the pyramid which include Love/belonging, Esteem and Self-actualization. Compared to AI these could all be considered distractions from the directive. Layer on top of that illness, disease, substance use, the influence of bodily chemicals on function, and moodiness, and the concept of human frailty is a very easy plot point for our destruction.

The concept of AI having a drive or desire which leads to a conclusion to erase humanity is a more difficult and esoteric idea, though this has been anticipated for a very long time. Isaac Asimov introduced the concept of the Three Laws of Robotics in 1942 in the short story Runaround (later included in the collection titled I, Robot) [2]. The three laws are:

A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Do the AI systems being developed now follow these three laws? The answer is no, but it’s because the three laws assume a sentient, self-directed and reasoning entity who can understand concepts like ethics and morals. The current AI systems being developed, including Large Language Models, operate on algorithms and pattern recognition without moral reasoning capabilities. As an example, today’s AI may tell a lie to pursue its objective with no shame or regret when the lie is detected, which does not imply malice. There’s no evidence of AI wanting to harm humans or of concluding that humans are useless and a threat to AI existence.

However, let’s look at the film Subservience [3], a 2024 film in which a domestic-help gynoid, Alice, played by Megan Fox, develops self-awareness and desires — especially about being loved. She has the singular persistent focus of AI without the curbs and guardrails of a human who is used to dealing with desires and disappointments, and thus becomes dangerous to everyone in her pursuit of those desires. This film wonderfully presents what could go wrong if AI had desires like humans. Is it that humans have feelings and emotions and ups and downs and pain, all of which generally temper our actions? Are these frailties exactly what is necessary to prevent us from becoming Alice? Maybe the things that we see as human frailties compared to AI/intelligent robotics are exactly the things that have enabled our species to thrive and grow without spiraling into destructive persistent focus.

References

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Source

1

Maslow, A. H. (1943). A Theory of Human Motivation. Classics in the History of Psychology (York University).

https://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Maslow/motivation.htm

2

Three Laws of Robotics — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Laws_of_Robotics

3

Subservience (film) — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subservience

Notable Movies and TV Shows

· The Matrix

· The Terminator series

· Westworld

· Ex Machina

· Black Mirror

Influential Books

· Neuromancer by William Gibson

· I, Robot by Isaac Asimov

· Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick

· Superintelligence by Nick Bostrom