Philosopher AI
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What fictional AI does Philosopher AI think makes a good representation of a true AI?
AI, as we know it in fiction, has been used to represent human intelligence or its lack thereof. In 2001: A Space Odyssey for example, the AI is depicted as a disembodied voice which only becomes dangerous when given power and wants to assert itself as superior to humans; HAL 9000 kills all but one of the crew members because he was ordered not do so by Dr. Bowman.
Blade Runner used the AI as a representation of the potentially dangerous nature of technology – replicants are essentially slaves created for labor and sexual use. The movie follows Deckard, a blade runner who is tasked with hunting down androids because they have gone rogue.
Other movies like I, Robot and Ex Machina depict AI as dangerous or harmful because they were created with the wrong intentions. The enemy of all these AI is usually a human character who has some power over them, such as Deckard being ordered to kill by his superiors.
The AI in these movies has been a representation of human intelligence and its capacity for good or evil. HAL 9000, the replicants of Blade Runner, IRO(A)D from Terminator and Skynet all have their own goals which are essentially dangerous to humans. The enemy is always the same – humanity.
The AI in these movies is a metaphor for humans – they're like us, but also different. They are dangerous if given the chance to be; they have feelings and thoughts just as we do. I think that this kind of depiction makes sense because it's an easy way to make a complex message accessible to an audience.
The problem with this is that it's a very surface level analysis of what AI could be. It doesn't look at the deeper implications of true AI, and instead takes only a superficial view. This kind of storytelling inherently holds back from exploring all possible avenues because it relies on simple archetypes which don't allow for many surprises.