Author’s Note: I wrote this essay about seven months ago when AI was just emerging as an exciting tool to advance mankind, and a terrifying threat to end it. So much has been written and said since then, I felt an urgency to post this before the technology is laughably out of date and/or we are exterminated. In the interest of fairness, I reached out to ChatGPT and asked it to review the essay and comment on the likelihood of AI being misused for evil purposes and either taking over the world or simply getting rid of us. The response is printed at the end of the essay verbatim and the evasive answers would do any politician proud. And at the end, when it asked “Can I tell you something?” I felt like it was messing with me. Lastly, I should note that it took ChatGPT less than five seconds to read the following 3,000-word essay and write a thoughtful review.
Can I tell you something?
I saw Stanley Kubrick’s magnum opus 2001: A Space Odyssey when it was first released in 1968, and as an 11-year old I remember being dazzled by the special effects and filled with wonder. Like wondering what the fuck it was about. Fortunately I was in the company of Ted Mahar, who at the time was an occasional babysitter of my sister and I and also happened to be the film critic for Portland’s local newspaper The Oregonian. After the credits rolled and the lights came up, he patiently explained how the monolith symbolized mankind’s unquenchable thirst for knowledge, and how that led us from the watering hole to the moon, then Jupiter, then to our ultimate demise and rebirth.
Oh, right. How did I miss that?