I dream of a scorched earth

By Henry Zhou

Have you ever seen the Terminator series? Well, first of all, if you haven’t, then you definitely should; it's one of the all time classics! It’s set in an apocalyptic world situation where an evil AI organization called Skynet sends these killer robots back in time to kill the leader of a rebellion (before he became the leader) and alter the past, so that they may create a future where robots and AI reign supreme. When you think about such a thing, it sounds silly right? I mean, the idea of a single, man made artificial intelligence system causing the near extinction of the human race. Many people thought such a thing to be impossible back then, and that our technology will never advance to the point where such an event is possible. However, when you take a closer look at the AI tech we have today, and at the alarming rate at which AI is progressing right now, and the way that it is influencing a variety of industries, as well as our everyday lives, then such a silly event like an AI takeover might not end up being so silly after all.

Remember a few years ago, when there was that one AI-made video of Will Smith eating Spaghetti? Well, I do, and I remember that it looked absolutely hilarious. I, along with many other viewers then, believed that AI tech won't ever replace humans, due to the sheer mediocrity of the tech at that time. When the new AI video tool Sora got introduced a few months back, a bunch of other people and I had a rude awakening, a very rude one. The videos that you can create with Sora are nearly identical with those of reality, as if actually filmed by a camera in real life. Now, what does this have to do with a potential AI takeover? Well, for one of those to start, AI would have to start by integrating itself into our previously man-run industry. AI will start to replace real people, causing people to lose jobs; specifically, because the Sora tool will probably be made widely available in the near future, companies in the design and entertainment industries will probably make use of Sora and similar AI generators to cut corners for projects, such as movies, games and etc., because it is cheaper than having to hire actual people to write scripts, create designs, voice act, and more. Also, specifically with the Sora AI, there is also a variety of wrongdoings someone can do with it. Due to the fact that it has been proven that you can ask the AI to generate a hyper-realistic video of about anything, what if you ask it to generate a video of, say, your friend committing a heinous crime? If someone were to see that video and report your friend to the police, how will you prove that the video is fake? That is one of the things that we must consider when we choose to integrate AI more and more into our lives. 

Also, it's not just Sora that is causing concerns of AI replacing human jobs either. The infamous Chat GPT 4 has already been proven to be able to write code, and its capabilities are advancing day by day. Eventually, there will probably come an AI so sophisticated that it can code anything, as long as you tell it what you want, which could definitely lead to the computer science industry dying out in the near future (really shows how fast things can change huh? I mean, it's probably the most popular field in the world right now…). Another industry to be affected would be the music industry. Many artists are using AI to replicate the voices of artists, alive or deceased alike, to implement them into their songs. With this one, there are a variety of ethical issues. If you are using the voice of a dead artist, then by using their voice to create music again, I think it's like stomping on their grave. THEY created a name for themselves and left THEIR mark on history, and dragging them back and putting them into different songs once again is just refusing to let them rest. Another complication with the music industry specifically is the fact that if currently using their voice to create music again, I think it's like stomping on their grave. THEY created a name for themselves and left THEIR mark on history, and dragging them back and putting them into different songs once again is just refusing to let them rest. Another complication with the music industry specifically is the fact that if currently active artists can have their voices replicated, the artists will become more lazier. Even if the AI voices aren’t one hundred percent accurate at the moment, I’m sure that in less than a decade, they WILL be identical. When that time comes, artists can just have the AI sing the songs for them, and nobody will ever know. Big recording companies can just

buy the artists’ permission to use their voice, and create their own songs with them, discouraging actual effort. There are also AI “artists” using artificial intelligence to create a variety of art, which is also a very big problem, since AI “art” harms real artists. For example, there are many conventions where art is sold today. Sometimes, AI art is prohibited, and anybody under the suspicion of selling AI art is kicked out. Lately, more and more people that make actual art have been getting kicked out of these conventions because their art looks similar to AI sellers, limiting their growth, all while the AI users get to stay and keep selling their fake and soulless “art.” It is discouraging more and more artists from trying to sell actual art, and is putting an iron wall on the art industry. These are all examples of the AI effect on our industry, but what about in our everyday Lives? 

I witness more and more people today, whether it be in my grade/school/work, there is always someone that advocates for the use of AI tools to get them through whatever they are doing. Most people only use AI to proofread and make sure that their works are good, but there is also an abundance of people who cheat using AI. More often than not have I overheard conversations of someone using AI to write an essay, or using AI to cheat on a homework assignment. Not only is such a thing not fair to the people who actually do their work, it weakens the mind, because people aren’t doing work like they used to. Another problem with this cheating is the fact that some people will cheat their way through their career processes, and I ask you, do you really want someone who cheated through medical school to perform your surgery? Yeah, I didn’t think so. Also, many of the biggest devices nowadays are managed digitally, on virtual systems. There have been many instances of, say, internet servers in important places such as the pentagon or MIT being hacked. If AI really have the potential to replace humans, then surely AI will be able to hack things similarly. That is a REALLY big problem, as if one day AI were to go autonomous, then key systems, such as the nuclear weapons systems, the internet, and much more would be particularly vulnerable to AI. This is where the apocalypse really starts, as when you have AI taking over our weapons that can already end the world, you are giving an unpredictable force an unstoppable weapon. They will be able to threaten humanity in any way they want, and we won’t be able to do anything about it. 

I think we can all agree that humanity has come a long way, from the times that we were cavemen, to now: living in a sea of industrial bloom. We’ve created countless new and amazing technologies throughout the centuries, but not everything we create is always good nor bad. No matter what we create or have created in the past, we live through the present and the future in repent for the consequences of our creations. For example, nuclear weapons brought about a new age in world affairs, and if it weren’t for some of the most important negotiations between world leaders, then the world might have been destroyed already. Now, AI is about to do the same thing, and if we don’t take action to keep it in line, then who knows what could happen?