What Could Possibly Go Wrong with the Profileration of AI: Read and Watch Science Fiction and Find Out

Science Fiction writers and filmmakers are sometimes accurate seers and prophets of how humanity and technology will evolve.

Read Jules Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon and see how the NASA scientists learned from it.

Look at Issac Asimov’s I Robot and fast forward to a First Lady of the United States walking down a White House hallway with a talking…wait for it…Robot who, as Melania Trump said, could help teach children in the classroom.

Watch Star Trek and take a look at that communicator…cell phone you use every day.

With advances in AI and data centers accelerating at, many would say, alarming rate, many should look to the creative geniuses of Science Fiction writers and filmmakers on what happens when technology runs amuck when no safeguards are in place.

Read stories like Karel Čapek’s R.U.R. or Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001 A Space Odyssey and Dial F for Frankenstein about robots rebelling against humans and a worldwide web system and supercomputer taking over.

Foolishly relying on supercomputers that think they’re God could be found in the underrated 1970 Colossus: The Forbin Project movie, the Matthew Broderick hit War Games, or watch the Star Trek Original Series second season episode, The Ultimate Computer.

Cue the musical theme for The Terminator Series, and people should think about what happens when humanity allows technology to become sentient or eclipse them.

Other examples include Westworld (the original movie and HBO series) and Ultron from The Avengers.

More metaphysical examples would be The Matrix trilogy or Her, starring Joaquin Phoenix.

What could possibly go wrong with the proliferation of AI, especially with aspiring tech overlord Long Termists eugenicists like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel pulling the strings on several AI initiatives?

Watch Bill Maher’s New Rules from April 17 and see what can go wrong.

Many public servants, including Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, have, while not as dystopian as the science fiction examples above, sounded the alarm on the proliferation of AI and how it could threaten individual prosperity and society as a whole.

Appearing at an American Seed AI Festival in March, Kelly, who last year published an AI roadmap for the country, said:

“Because the truth is that Washington is behind on this stuff, like way behind. This town is just starting to ask questions about the impact of AI on the workforce, on our infrastructure, and on our society. Questions that are already being discussed in places like Silicon Valley, in those Silicon Valley boardrooms, and in offices on Wall Street, and also at kitchen tables across the country.

Now, AI has real promise, more productivity, better health care, faster scientific discovery. But we’ve got to be honest about something here. If we don’t get this right, people across this country are going to be the ones that end up paying the price.

And many of those people are going to be left behind. We can’t let that happen. So that’s why I put out my AI for America roadmap.

And it’s focused on closing the gaps, workforce, and infrastructure. And making sure innovation strengthens the families and small businesses that power our economy, instead of putting more strain on them. Because if America is going to lead in AI, we’ve got to invest in the people, the workers, the systems that make that leadership possible…

Some here in DC and also in Silicon Valley think that the solution is to just steamroll people and steamroll communities.

Give them no say. That stuff’s not only wrong, it’s just not going to work. And if you want to build faster, you’ve got to talk to the local community and work with them on what the project will mean for their jobs, their town, and their cost of living.

You have to make it clear early that they’re better off with this project than without it. So the question is, how do we build a better way to get this done? And I’ve got a proposal. So building on the ideas from my AI for America roadmap, I’ve been working on a new bill to do exactly that.

And it’s pretty simple. Bring developers and communities together at the beginning to work through the details. What a project means for energy, water, infrastructure, and jobs, and put real commitments on the table.

The people building the data centers commit to delivering real long-term benefits for communities, like local hiring, paying for some of the infrastructure, and keeping utility rates low. In return, communities commit to getting projects approved and off the ground. Now, my framework includes public input, clear timelines, and enforceable agreements.

So communities and workers have a real say in how these projects take shape, and developers have certainty that they’re going to move forward. Clear expectations, tangible outcome, tangible community benefits, real accountability, no surprises…

…Projects that do this work up front, they get priority access to the federal programs that are already on the books. We also make sure communities aren’t going into this process alone. The bill provides local leaders with access to the engineers, the lawyers, and the experts that they need to negotiate these agreements effectively.

Because if we want this to work, it’s got to be fair. Local communities need the same expertise as the big companies. This is about speeding things up by reducing the friction that’s stops projects today.

When people see real benefits, good paying jobs, stronger infrastructure, lower costs, they’re going to get on board. We’re not just building data centers or power plants. We’re building an economy, an economy that works for people to get, one that creates opportunity, strengthens the middle class, and keeps America leading the world.

Please see all of Kelly’s remarks below: