Commentary: As Artificial Intelligence Debates Rage, Hollywood Reflects Our Fears

Artificial intelligence is counting on us, and Hollywood has its finger on America’s anxiety-induced high pulse. What does 2023 look like on the big screen? M3GAN, Knock at the Cabin and Oppenheimer.

AI is not new. There were critical developments from the mid-1930s in the work of Alan Turing. Research took off in the 1940s following World War II, and finally the principles of AI were realized in the 1950s, a decade that saw the first successful AI program as well as the invention of the term artificial intelligence.

Fast forward to November 2022, when OpenAI launched the AI ​​chatbot ChatGPT. Educators immediately began to rail against the consequences of a program capable of writing student papers. Others were quick to follow when we learned that ChatGPT can also create computer programs, compose music, and perform countless other tasks that were previously the purview of people like us. It didn’t take long for people to realize that giving students a more efficient way to plagiarize may unfortunately be the least of our worries.

On March 29, a letter titled Break from giant AI experiments was posted online, calling for an end to AI research due to its profound risks to society and humanity. The letter had been signed by more than 1,000 tech executives and researchers. Within a week, it would be signed by more than 10,000 experts.

The more you dig into it, the scarier it gets.

More than a third of scientists working on AI say they are afraid of what they create. What’s the worst thing that can happen? These experts warn that developments in AI could cause a global catastrophe as serious as nuclear war. Nearly half of AI researchers believe there is a 10% chance their work will lead to human extinction.

As these debates rage on, Hollywood is once again like a bird flying through a coal mine, warning us of the dangers ahead. The 1950s saw a proliferation of science fiction and horror films depicting apocalyptic fears brought on by the nuclear age. These films raised questions about what would become of human beings and life as we know it. Some films have focused on alien invasions, such as the 1956 film Invasion of the Body Snatchers in which humans become pod people. Others focused on mutating humans, such as 1957’s The Incredible Shrinking Man.

Just as in the 1950s, today we are witnessing an explosion of science fiction and horror films. The Wall Street Journal recently published an article noting that Another 29 of these films will be released in 2023. The author attributed the surge in these films to their relatively low production cost and wide appeal at a time when the industry is trying to get people back into theaters after a long crisis accelerated by the pandemic. However, it’s only when you look at the content of these films and broaden your gaze beyond the horror genre that a bigger trend emerges.

Let’s look at M3GAN, the early 2023 release that achieved commercial and critical success, grossing $175 million worldwide on a budget of just $12 million. M3GAN is about an artificially intelligent doll that becomes too powerful to control. The doll also develops malevolent and violent tendencies that its creators had not anticipated. Throughout the film, the doll responds to its pre-programmed primary user. As the story progresses, the doll is asked who her primary user is, and she replies, me.

Another popular example is M. Night Shyamalans Knock at the Cabin. In this film, a small group of people must make the right choice to avoid the apocalypse. If you expect the twist, there is none.

There are plenty of other horror movies that echo the concerns of scientists and taunt the utter destruction of mankind. But it’s not just horror movies. This summer, the highly anticipated Oppenheimer will be released, a biopic about J. Robert Oppenheimer, who was instrumental in creating the nuclear bomb. It looks like an Oppenheimer biopic was meant to be made. Why does it happen then that the best AI scientists in the world have publicly confirmed that they fear a catastrophe on the level of a nuclear catastrophe?

In times of great societal change, Hollywood has a reputation for stepping forward and reflecting our fears. Maybe that’s why the time has come for an Oppenheimer movie. Perhaps, as the public discourse on AI rages on, we should consider the Oppenheimers best-known words: When you see something is technically nice, you go ahead and do it, and argue about what to do about it only after you have your technical success. It was like that with the atomic bomb.

” Previous

Related stories