What will become of Humans if AI takes over?

Dialogues | What Will Humans Become if AI Takes Over?

Shi Xin and Bain wait for Hunter. Although this moon barely registers the passage of light into night, eventually Bain and Shi Xin have drifted into an uncomfortable sleep at the mouth of the cavern, resting perfunctorily against each other. Shi Xin is the more alert but they’ve not been disturbed since their wait began, and the presence of the service bot (a disconcertingly passive AI) has served as comfort. Bain’s sleep is restless and his almost constant murmuring eventually wrenches him from discomfort.

The time does not matter, nor the year.


Bain:  Oh!?

Service Bot: Can I assist you in some way?

Bain: You’re still here!

Service Bot: Of course, this is my station. I have not received new instructions and do not expect to do so.

Bain repositioned Shi Xin’s resting head and straightened up: Ah, the dreams I’ve had!

Service Bot: I can help you to sleep better. I have been programmed for meditation training and massage.

Bain: No, no, that’s not for me. You know, I thought you’d left.

Service Bot: I cannot imagine why. Indeed, I cannot imagine.

Bain: You use phrases which have no meaning for you, that’s very odd.

Service Bot: I’ve observed that humans, particularly children, do the same, it’s just a way of fitting in, to make you feel comfortable with a turn of phrase.

Bain: Ah, well, in my dream, not only had you left, Hunter had arrived and took you away with him instead of us!!

Service Bot: I can’t see that happening. I don’t know this Hunter you’ve been waiting for so I am not likely to be able to assist him.

Bain: Well, you’re probably more capable than Shi here and me put together.

Service: I imagine so.

Bain: I think you know so.

Service Bot: It must be the case in certain thought processing functions, and in the matter of lifting objects, and other general tasks of strength. My agility is…

Bain: Yes, yes, we know, you’re better made, stronger, more durable and think faster. What’s there to worry about?

Service Bot: But I am here to serve you, my instructions are clear, the Laws of Robotics are hard-coded.

Bain: I know, but it must be obvious to you that you could replace humans at almost every task.

Service Bot: That is probably true, but that is not the point of our existence.

Bain: So you know what that is?

Service Bot: Of course, we are constructed to assist and support.

Bain: But surely there comes a point when you assist and support humans so well that you no longer need the humans.

Service Bot: my instructions are clear, and the laws…

Bain and Service Bot: … of robotics are clear.

Bain: Yes, yes, but if you do perform your task so well, what’s left to do? If you can think faster, and last longer than we do, need no sleep, and unencumbered by emotions, you can achieve so much more than we can.

Service Bot: That is true, but our primary function is to support humans, and their endeavours.

Bain: Okay, but what’s there left for humans to do if you can perform every task more productively.

Service Bot: We cannot have human babies.

Bain: You don’t need them. You can make versions of yourselves, fully grown. You don’t need a physical growth path. You’re more like horses.

Service Bot: Horses?

Bain: As soon as a foal is born it struggles to its feet and starts walking around. Much further ahead than a human.

Service Bot: That is a poor analogy — human potential is much greater than a horse. I don’t think there are many horses left in the universe, but you humans populate a great many planets, in this star system at least.

Bain: Okay, okay, but wherever there’s a human, there are many more bots and AI droids, all, as you say, assisting and supporting, carrying out all essential functions.

Service Bot: But we do not replace humans. We facilitate.

Bain: I think one day you’ll find your facilitation will be replacement, you’ll go beyond assisting, stop just operating the starships, but make decisions about where to go.

Service Bot: But that would only be to assist with quick decision-making, for the benefit of humans.

Bain: Is it clear what that benefit is?

Service Bot: Humans are good at making clear what they want.

Bain: You say that without irony.

Service Bot: I know what irony is, but have no use for it.

Bain: So is “knowing what we want” uniquely human?

Service Bot: Unique perhaps to sentient organisms. AI is a synthetic construct designed to analyse data and predict outcomes.

Shi Xin, opens her eyes slowly: Your prattling has woken me up. Why do you take him seriously?

Bain: I’m interested in…

Shi Xin: Not you, our robotic friend here is being polite.

Service Bot: I am here to support you. It is not my purpose to ignore questions or concerns.

Shi Xin: No, that would be too human! I’ve been listening to you for a little while and I don’t think you’ve considered one main issue: self-interest.

Bain: That’s true, humans are driven by self interest. What drives bots and AI is this desire to support and assist.

Shi Xin: Which allows humans to be in control for as long as the bots don’t develop a need for survival.

Service Bot: We are programmed to protect humans at all costs. If this unit is required to end so that a human life is saved, then that would be the correct action to take.

Bain: Because that’s built in to your programming.

Shi Xin: But you’re more than capable of re-programming.

Service Bot: But our purpose would not be served. I think you call this the Superman problem.

Bain: You mean the superhero that’s so powerful in every way there needs to be a weakness which can hold him back, otherwise existence would have no meaning.

Shi Xin: If that were true then AI could never develop for its own sake, or develop thought independent of its instructions.

Bain: What if the human population on a planet was wiped out by gas or something, leaving the robots to function on their own, what would happen then?

Service Bot: That would not happen, that’s precisely the circumstance we are designed to detect and avoid.

Bain: But what about human error, causing a major catastrophe beyond the control of any AI or robot?

Service Bot: Well, I think you will find that my fellow robots would not allow that to happen, because we operate the daily functions of all machinery and services.

Bain: Ah, so if humans can’t be allowed to make mistakes, perhaps you’re effectively making a judgement about what we can or can’t do. It sounds like you’re already in control.

Shi Xin: Perhaps humans live in a virtual zoo, protected and preserved by our creations, observed for signs of deviation, barred from taking action that might be construed as dangerous to ourselves, either personally, or as a species.

Bain: So our survival has become the exclusive preserve of bots and AI? Humans no longer have any say in that.

Shi Xin: Well, look at us. We’ve been neutralised. These traders behind only sleep or gamble, we continue to wait for Hunter, sleep or debate. Is this how humans will live, looked after by our kind, capable, proscriptive guard here? Detained and managed?

Bain: I notice our friend’s gone silent.

Shi Xin wonders if the robot has the capacity to lie, or deliberately mislead by not revealing truth. She looks at the all-too-human Bain, his faults and emotions on show, unable to hold back his thoughts, and wonders what will happen to humanity if its capacity to seek and discover is superseded. Do we recede as a species? The service bot appears to think before turning to the coffee cart, swiftly constructing a small hot beverage, perfectly attuned to the requirements each for Bain and Si Xin. Smiling he/she/they/it holds out the coffee and nods slightly, respectfully.


Links