Like many scientists of my generation, I read Isaac Asimov’s novel I, Robot at a young age, many years before Hollywood got their hands on it and twisted its simple message. In the original book, all robots were hardwired to follow a set of basic laws that placed the sanctity of human life as their prime directive. Because of the humanistic promise of I, Robot and of many other books and films of that era, many of us grew up imagining a future full of robots that would enhance and simplify our daily existence.
From this premise, certain questions logically followed: What happens if and when the robots become smarter than we are? Given humans’ incredible talent for committing errors, should robots one day be tasked with running the world for us? Robots—machines unencumbered by feelings, the need for individualistic glory, and the megalomaniacal obsession to make an impact on human history—would they perhaps be wiser stewards of humanity than humans themselves? That sounds reasonable, right?
These days, I’m not so sure, and I think a lot of people share my concerns. Today’s “robots” do not yet pretend to be fully anthropomorphous. And they can’t quite yet be handed the task of running the world. But they have, however, read many books, so they know what sentence structures and what words tend to follow other words and sentence structures. They have also studied the work of many great visual artists and can make brush strokes that imitate those artists.
I may be among those humans who designed a smart device that is now in general use, to the degree that we cannot live without it. Nowadays, a computing machine has installed an algorithm, access to data, the ability to select and disregard data, organize data, and output them: this assembly of instructions has been given a catchy term: intelligent machine.
Hollywood has had its share of AI boogeypersons over the years, but the practically omnipotent Borg from Star Trek: The Next Generation are unsurpassed. I’ve always thought that the writers of Star Trek copped out by declaring the Borg part of the universe off-the-limits, essentially confining them to the “forbidden zone,” keeping the greatest threat to humanity at bay via wishful thinking.
Had Star Trek been written by a variant of ChatGPT, the story could have been much different. Humans would be happily assimilated into the Borg, in constant contact with other elements of zetta processing, and never having the time for another solitary creative, loving, or original thought. The architects of today’s intelligent machines seem to be inspired by the Borg concept of humanness.
Sincerely,
Marija Strojnik, PhD
Sigma Xi President