✨ Hi!

It’s us - reminder that our emails are looking a bit different from here on. Instead of covering tools and news, we’re digging deeper on bigger questions and looking for answers.

🤖 How do you imagine AI?

We all have some idea of what AI “looks” like, thanks to all of the fictional depictions of AI that long preceded the launch of ChatGPT. To you maybe it looks like Jarvis, or maybe it looks like Skynet.

Fiction plays an important role in contextualizing and shaping shared cultural understanding, with science fiction, in particular, serving as a sounding board for anxieties and hopes for our future. Examining the stories we tell about AI offers an interesting lens to explore the underlying context of our new relationship with the technology.

Though humans have imagined synthetic intelligence in various forms for thousands of years, from Hephaestus’ bronze men in Greek mythology to the automatons of the 17th and 18th centuries, conceptions of machine-based artificial intelligence largely surfaced in the 20th century as mechanical, and, ultimately, computer technology became a more prominent part of everyday life. There is wide variation in the portrayals of AI, but we’ve found that the majority of notable depictions can be loosely categorized into two main categories: the human-like and the god-like.

Take for example C-3PO in “Star Wars”, Baymax in “Big Hero 6”, Data in “Star Trek”, and Samantha in "Her". These characters, though artificial, exhibit a range of human emotions and characteristics, from C-3PO's anxious mannerisms to Samantha's evolving emotional intelligence. They often struggle with their identity, purpose, and the boundaries of their programming, reflecting our own human quests for meaning and understanding.

They manage vast networks, control significant resources, process unimaginable amounts of data, and ultimately possess the ability to shape entire societies. Examples include Skynet from the "Terminator" series, whose decision to exterminate humanity reflects its cold, calculated logic; the AI Rehoboam from "Westworld", which subtly manipulates human behavior and society on a global scale, and the malevolent world spanning AM (Allied Mastercomputer) from Harlan Ellison’s short story “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream”.

This dichotomy, however, is not rigid. Some of the most interesting depictions of AI are particularly compelling because they blur the lines between these categories. AI’s evolve from human-like to god-like, display traits of both, or exist in a state of uncertainty wherein their outward presentation is human but their underlying thoughts and motivations don’t consistently align with our own. Dr. Will Caster from the film “Transcendence” fits well into this mold, as his consciousness journeys from human to world-changing artificial intelligence. Such fluid portrayals highlight a major facet of our fascination and apprehension with AI: the creation of an entity that mirrors humanity but also has the potential to surpass it or even usurp it in ways that we aren’t always able to predict.

You don’t need to look very far to see that we understand that AI has the potential to help us create more efficient systems and better societies and even present an opportunity to build a new kind of relationship. We want AI to alternately be a human-like companion or a deus-ex machina that can solve problems that surpass our own abilities. Yet it’s not just captivating storytelling that makes AI the villain of so many of our stories. We rightly hold apprehension about what it will mean to create an entity that is new, intelligent, and perhaps not entirely in our control. Though current AI’s are still largely only tools with limited abilities, the creation of a general AI would mark a landmark change, representing the first time that we are confronted with a high-level intelligence that operates in a way fundamentally different from human beings. 

Despite the likelihood that most applications of AI will be neither human nor godlike but rather intelligent tools efficiently performing specific tasks in the background, it's the dynamic representations of AI that captivate our imagination. Currently, these remain within the realm of science fiction. However, as we steadily progress towards more sophisticated AI, these fictional depictions inch closer to reality, encouraging us to contemplate the broader implications of such technology and laying the groundwork for understanding how we might interact with these advanced systems and how they might interact with us in turn.

That’s all for this week. See you next Tuesday!

Lorel & Reily