September 2118
and why you shouldn’t be so scared

I used to watch The Iron Giant a lot. Looking back, I would mark it as the first time I really learned to sympathize for “the machine.” But in my eyes at the time, the world was much simpler. Robot friends were cool.
Fast forward a few Black Mirrors and Westworld’s later, and I would say my view hasn’t really changed much. The world, however, has. Everything is much “smarter” today. No giant robot friends per se, but Spotify does give some pretty good song recs.
Right now, I believe we are at a pivotal point where AI is advanced enough to benefit our lives but still seems to hold little “power” over it. Yet, there remains a grim paranoia of what really is this “AI” and how much “smarter” can it really get. So whats all the fuss about?

We are scared of us.
At least, we should be. AI in an academic sense, is actually not that novel. We are just in a time where we have enough digital data and processing power to try it out. With this, a new market has emerged and AI as a commercial tool has become more and more present in recent years. Consumer demands now guide progress. Better face detection for your filters, smoother nlp for your captions, and deeper understanding of your interests for your time. But what does this mean going forward?
Well to understand where we are going, lets remember where we’ve been.

Almost 100 years ago, the term “robot” was first coined by playwright Karel Capek in his famous play “Rossum’s Universal Robots.” The term stemmed from the Czech robota, meaning slave or forced labor. Naturally, the premise was man created these superior machines that ultimately realize their power and kill everyone. So pretty much right from the start we couldn’t trust these guys. But this sentiment still plays a major role in how we choose to prioritize what we want from AI.
I believe advancements in the future will be inspired more so by integrating AI into nature than having it be its own entity. We will see a push to make technology more seamless into our lives until we forget what we are without it. Although dystopian for some, we could see great progress in the betterment of humankind collectively. The issue lies more so in the intentions of those that will lead these advancements. What new incentives do Governments, Corporations, and People have that may exploit technology that is so deeply rooted in peoples lives? If we begin to alter our own perceptions, who’s to say we can even trust ourselves? The state of our future depends on understanding the complexities relating between Artificial Intelligence and us.
Perhaps a new form of us.

