Fear of AI is an old, old story. Rebelling robots and evil mystery boxes have worried us for millennia | 24CA News

The fears of rogue synthetic intelligence might appear to be a brand new concern, with latest developments corresponding to ChatGPT and self-driving automobiles — however tales of sentient and probably malevolent expertise date again not simply many years, however millennia. 

According to historians, these themes have been round lengthy earlier than Arnold Schwarzenegger performed the function of a killer robotic and travelled again in time to menace Sarah Connor in 1984’s The Terminator.

“People had been thinking about these kinds of devices and inventions and innovations … before the technology existed,” Adrienne Mayor, a historian of historical science and a classical folklorist at Stanford University, advised Tapestry host Mary Hynes.

Stories corresponding to Pandora in historical Greece, the murderous rampage of a golem in Prague, and Frankenstein’s monster are simply a number of the many dots all through historical past that join our worry of inanimate creations coming to life. 

Mayor, whose 2018 guide Gods and Robots explores the topic, says a few of these legends include warnings.

Pandora’s field

One of the oldest tales dates again to historical Greece and the story of Pandora. Mayor says within the unique story, advised by Greek poet Hesiod, Zeus wished to punish humankind for accepting the present of fireside. 

So Zeus commissioned Hephaestus — the god of fireside, blacksmiths, craftsmen and volcanoes — to create a man-made lady named Pandora that Zeus described as evil disguised as magnificence. 

“Zeus sent this lifelike fembot to Earth carrying this jar filled with misery for mortals,” mentioned Mayor. “Pandora’s mission was to insinuate herself into human society and then open that jar and release all the misery.”

In Hesiod’s story, Pandora did simply that. Prometheus’s brother, Epimetheus, fell for the great thing about Pandora, regardless of his brother’s warning. In Greek, Prometheus means trying forward, whereas Epimetheus means hindsight.

“We’ve got foresight versus hindsight right there in one of the oldest myths about artificial life,” mentioned Mayor.

“Prometheans today are concerned about our future with AI and robotics, in contrast to … the overly optimistic Epimetheans, who are easily dazzled by the short-term gains.”

Mayor says Pandora is not the one story about synthetic intelligence in Greek mythology. There’s additionally the story of Talos, the primary depiction of a robot-like being in Western literature. Talos was designed by Hephaestus to guard the island of Crete. 

“He could pick up and hurl boulders to sink the enemy ships. And then if anyone did come ashore, he could heat his bronze body to red hot and then grab them up and hug them to himself and roast them alive,” mentioned Mayor. 

But within the story of Jason and the Argonauts, they have been in a position to take away the bolt on Talos’s ankle to defeat him.

“So Talos was made by technology and taken down by technology. They took out the bolt, the power source bled out and the giant robot was destroyed,” mentioned Mayor. 

Fear of creation

Amir Vudka, a lecturer on the division of media research on the University of Amsterdam, says there are a number of examples of inanimate objects coming to life and inflicting chaos, just like the story of the golem of Prague. 

Vudka says there are various variations of the legend, however in all of them, a rabbi makes use of magic to create a golem. At first, the golem is an effective servant, working as a type of robotic. In some instances, it might shield individuals. In different tales, it might simply assist the rabbi with labour. But it at all times goes fallacious. 

“The golem always gets out of control, eventually, kind of rebelling against his master [and] brings a lot of destruction, death, mayhem,” mentioned Vudka.

“What keeps repeating is that perhaps it’s not a good idea to create something like this.”

These tales repeat all through tradition, says Vudka. From Frankenstien’s monster, to robots in Blade Runner and The Terminator, people hold telling the story of synthetic intelligence that rebels. 

“We are very afraid of the unknown. In general, I think humans are usually afraid of what they don’t know, of otherness,” mentioned Vudka.

Learning from myths

Vudka says there is a vital lesson to be realized from the story of the golem. In the story of the rabbi creating the golem, the rabbi is aware of the phrases to reverse the spell and finish the golem’s rampage. 

“You have to know the spell to close it. Otherwise, what do you do when it goes out of control? It might be too late,” mentioned Vudka. 

That’s why, he says, it is essential we all know find out how to management the expertise we create. 

In the story of Pandora, the jar that introduced distress to individuals serves as a black field. Mayor says individuals know much less and fewer in regards to the expertise they use, and ChatGPT can equally be thought-about a black field.

“There’s a tendency for technology to be able to access unimaginably vast and complex data, and then make decisions based on that,” mentioned Mayor. “Both the users and the makers will be in the dark as to how those decisions were made by the AI.”

Mayor says it is essential that we do not forget that these technological developments are instruments, not new life. She says it places the accountability of what AI does onto the creators, not the creations themselves. 

And, she says, it should not all be considered unhealthy or evil. She mentioned there are additionally examples of myths the place expertise brings nothing however blessings. 

In Homer’s Odyssey, Odysseus makes use of what’s mainly a self-driving boat that helps him get residence safely. 

“There is nothing dubious about this. There’s nothing bad. It’s labour-saving. It fulfills his deepest wish. And these ships appear to be AI-driven … and it’s hopeful,” mentioned Mayor.