Here are some darkly satirical snippets of discourse about AI, though these days the distinction between reality and satire has almost completely dissolved.
Tech Companies: Our AI is so powerful and dangerous that it might cause catastrophic harm, including the destruction of humanity. We should be regulated.
Tech Companies (a few months later): Our AI is even more powerful. But regulation? We don’t need regulation. Who said we need regulation?
AI Evangelists (roughly 55 years ago): We’re just a few years away from singularity.
AI Evangelists (roughly 50 years ago): False alarm. AI winter time.
AI Evangelists (roughly 40 years ago): We’re just a few years away from singularity.
AI Evangelists (roughly 35 years ago): False alarm. AI winter time.
AI Evangelists (roughly 20 years ago): We’re just a few years away from singularity.
AI Evangelists (roughly 10 years ago): We’re just a few years away from singularity.
AI Evangelists (roughly 5 years ago): We’re just a few years away from singularity.
AI Evangelists (roughly 1 year ago): We’re just a few years away from singularity.
Tech Leaders: AI will destroy humanity.
People: Yikes!
Tech Leaders: Hooray!
Tech Leaders: Soon, robots will take over everything.
People: Yikes! How do we stop it?
Tech Leaders: Stop it? The solution is for us to become robots.
Tech Companies: Our AI is out of control. It’s ridiculously dangerous.
Politicians: Should we do something?
Tech Companies: Nah.
People: We don’t want AI to take our jobs or harm us or manipulate us. We really don’t like what tech companies are creating.
Politicians: We hear you. How can we help tech companies keep innovating?
Tech Companies: AI will kill us all.
People: Yikes!
Tech Companies: Faster!
Venture Capital Firms: You’re not moving fast enough. Here’s more money.
Tech Companies: Here’s AI, a new product. Play around it with it and have fun!
People: What’s it for?
Tech Companies: You figure it out. Use it however you want—as long as you use it a lot.
Person 1: I need a lawyer, doctor, therapist . . .
Tech Companies: We’re not lawyers, doctors, or therapists, so we’re not allowed to help you because we don’t have a license. But we can botwash it—we’ll build a chatbot to do these things, and then we don’t need a license. The bot can do anything, and no matter what happens, it’s fine. If something goes wrong, we just blame it on the bot.
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Daniel J. Solove is the Bernard Professor of Intellectual Property and Technology Law at the George Washington University Law School. He is the founder of TeachPrivacy, a company that provides workforce privacy, cybersecurity security, and AI training to companies and organizations around the world. He is the author of 10+ books and 100+ articles.
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