In a recent Tomato gathering there was a discussion about AI, and its many useful and wonderful applications.  Then the discussion veered into: will AI ever get so smart that it will take over and destroy humanity?

The idea of machines or robots taking over has been a staple of science fiction for decades: AI will become so powerful it will decide humans are obsolete and wipe us out. We all remember Hal from the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, and many other films and books that depict those disasters, with ominous music and flickering red robot eyes – just to scare us. Many of these books were actually meant to be warning signs about things wrong if humans don’t do things right! Unfortunately, many current Tech Bros saw these books as a road map.

Thanks why the loudest voices warning about AI doom are mostly the same people building it.  The Tech Bros are very fond of apocalyptic scenarios where their creation ends up running the world.

Why would they push this narrative?  It’s a brilliant marketing strategy: wrap your product in myth, sprinkle it with danger, and watch the fascination (and funding) roll in. The critics of the Silicon Valley Mafia, as they call those billionaires, point out that those stories reflect Tech Bros own quest for power and domination. Even though their products affect the lives of millions of people around the world, they refuse to allow any guidelines, regulations or government supervision. They fancy themselves literally masters of the Universe, with Earth merely a runway to take over other planets, with the help of their AI and other technologies.

The name of my company is Natural Intelligence, so I believe that our natural human intelligence will triumph at the end.

AI is just algorithms. No matter how complex algorithms are, they operate within the parameters set for them by their human creators.

“AI is not artificial, and it’s not intelligence!”- a journalist exclaimed after analyzing the recent debacle with Grok, the AI developed by Elon Musk. (in case you haven’t heard about it, Grok shocked the public by spouting Nazi propaganda and expressing admiration for Hitler).

Looks like a machine “gone rogue,” right? Not at all. The AI didn’t “decide” to become a fascist. It was given instructions to not be “politically correct” and “express view that were out of the mainstream”.  So, it generated output based on the data and instructions it was given.

There you have it: AI Will Always Do What It’s Programmed to Do. Even the so-called “self-learning” AI doesn’t wake up one morning and decide to major in Philosophy or start a robot rebellion. It learns based on rules and data human creators give it. When Tech Bros raise alarm about the upcoming end of the world, they are the ones creating it. We could stop them by demanding they create guardrails, so the end doesn’t happen.

There is also a powerful overlooked factor behind both tech and science fiction fantasies. Have you noticed that the authors of both are mostly male?

Men in that line of work — especially the Tech Bros — are pretty much disembodied. They value their minds, and fantasies their minds create. They don’t understand that real intelligence is biologically based. It includes heart and gut, among other things. Real intelligence includes compassion and concern for others.

The idea of an AI “deciding” to replace humans makes sense only when those aspects of real intelligence are ignored. Tech Bros could easily program their algorithms to include these qualities, and a command “do no harm” – but they don’t do that because they don’t value these qualities.

Let’s put the killer robot myth to rest and instead take action to straighten out these men. Women have voices, women have power! Let’s start speaking up. Let’s form groups, write letters, demand accountability from those Masters of the Universe!

I shared that idea with a Millennial woman and she said, sarcastically: “And of course those ‘shrill nagging voices’ will be ignored”. What do you think? Can we make it work?