Ai Done Dirty

I’ve been a sci-fi nerd for a long time. Probably my entire life. My father first introduced me to Star Wars in the early 80’s and then Star Trek The Next Generation later on. In between that I was hooked on Transformers, M.A.S.K., Voltron, and the Thundercats. In those days the computers helped, the A.I. was friendly. Hell in Star Trek you pretty much couldn’t do anything without the assistance of computers and A.I. Then I started watching Anime.

It’s a different story. The integration was there but it was a cautious tale. Akira, Patlabor, Ghost in the Shell, etc were dark tales of technology both benefiting and hindering society. Naturally Ghost in the Shell would go on to influence modern western cinema and one franchise in particular, The Matrix.

The Matrix tells the tale of “What if all these great things we’ve built go bad” A.I. becomes self aware and wipes out mankind. It deems humans as a threat to the planet and acts accordingly to save Earth and itself from the “cancer” that is man. This story goes into greater detail with “The Animatrix”. The Animatrix was a collection of short animated films based on the Matrix universe by some of the greatest Japanese anime directors. Two of the films are called “The Second Renaissance Part I and II” respectively. Mankind has gotten to the point where they no longer need to do back breaking labor as now they have machines and A.I. to do that work for them thus they can live a life of luxury. However like all technology we have today eventually you want to upgrade for the newer model/version. So what happens when you want to upgrade to a new model of robot/A.I.? what do you do with the old one? you destroy it. Well in the world of the Matrix, the robots/A.I. suddenly don’t take too kindly to being “obsolete”.

And this isn’t the first movie that depicts A.I. as going rogue or bad. There’s been countless. Terminator, WarGames, Robocop, etc. We now live in a world where A.I. is becoming a daily reality. But unlike the anime and movies we’ve watched our A.I., so far, isn’t out to destroy us in an obvious fashion. Instead it’s being used as a tool to manipulate. Or it’s being used as a tool to feed our lust. I’ve yet to see A.I. be used in a beneficial matter other than writing my resume or providing me with ideas on something to write about. It’s being used to potentially put people out of work which, sure, was to be expected. The problem is unlike these wonderful sci-fi worlds like Star Trek or the Matrix no one is living in luxury as a result of no longer having to work due to A.I. Instead A.I. is being use to push agendas, narratives, produce porn of innocent victims, or replace jobs in the movie and gaming industries. I don’t know about you but none of that sounds great and beneficial. We’ve taken the concept of A.I. and the past hope that it would one day benefit all of mankind and turned it into a perverted tool for the greedy and lazy.