When the machines come...

Is life imitating art?

Were we not warned of this in 1984, when Arnold Schwarzenegger gave his apparent prophetic debut in “The Terminator”? What about in the subsequent 1991 sequel, where the full fury of Skynet was explained?

Of course, there was a whole series following the takeover of the machines - built by the hands of men, which ultimately became man’s doom. It’s great stuff for the big screen, but not really what you want to see unfolding in real life.

Far from a luddite am I, continually amazed and entertained by emerging technology, I see the advances of humankind on so many fronts, and in myriad ways, our lives have been made better.

I mean, my robovac – PEAK LOVE.

Without an outright condemnation of the tool, let me say AI is fast becoming a danger, as are many forms of technology in the hands of corrupt, unscrupulous, and ultimately, stupid men.

Getting back to art-as-real-life, the background on Skynet is that it was an advanced AI system created to control the nuclear arsenal of the United States. Its initial purpose was for good – national defense. When the machines became self-aware and sentient, they saw humanity, itself, as the real threat, and began a nuclear war, created killbots called “Terminators,” and set about to wipe humans from the face of the earth.

Again, awesome for the big screen, but not so much for real world application.

I’ve gone through all of this to set up for this bit of news recently posted in The Independent.

According to top-ranking defense officials with the Pentagon, the U.S. approved of launching thousands of missiles into Iran, based on guidance from Elon Musk’s AI chatbot, Grok. For those who still delve into the cesspool of white nationalism and MAGA brain-suckling that is the site-formerly-known-as-Twitter, you’ve probably used Grok to create funny memes or ask if Musk is a Nazi. The results of what you get back are varied. Most seem to treat it as a party favor or another social media feature, but not something to be utilized in highly sensitive U.S. war maneuvers. Then again, most of us aren’t the blubbering, bumbling, wannabe tough guy, Pete Hegseth. The embarrassingly incompetent, self-named “Secretary of War” has spearheaded countless attacks on unknown civilians in open waters, and has led one war, and by all accounts, lost.

To be clear, I’d trust the local pizza delivery guy to draft war strategy more than I do Hegseth, but even for him, this is beyond the pale. The fact that Musk has been greatly enriched by our government through subsidies and other handouts and was able to push this monstrosity through says a lot about the lack of real leadership or accountability at the highest levels of the administration.

From the article:

In a sworn statement defending the trillionaire from a lawsuit alleging xAI data centers are illegally polluting Black communities, the Pentagon’s artificial intelligence chief said the chatbot’s continued operation is “a matter of paramount national security” — and was used to fire more than “2,000 munitions at 2,000 distinct targets within 96 hours.”

Grok, a generative artificial intelligence chatbot developed by xAI, is among four AI models “currently capable of supporting national security applications,” according to Cameron Stanley, the Pentagon’s chief digital and artificial intelligence officer.

The emphasis there is mine.

Is this not Skynet?

For anyone who has dabbled with AI, you’re probably quite aware that it is not a perfect entity, and it is very capable of making mistakes. In fact, many AI sites come with a warning that AI is imperfect, makes mistakes, and suggests double-checking the information it gives.

Getting back to the early days of the war-of-choice with Iran, we must consider the school that was targeted and the lives lost there.

U.S. military investigators believe American forces were likely responsible for a strike on an Iranian girl’s school in Minab that killed at least 175 people, mostly children, in what analysts and human rights officials believe is the deadliest incident for civilian casualties since the U.S. and Israeli forces began attacking the country in February.

Outside analysts have suggested that the Pentagon’s AI-driven targeting — in addition to human error that failed to check whether target maps were up to date — may have played a role in the bombing.

How lazy and irresponsible must you be to employ flawed technology, with no human hand on the driver’s wheel?

There is a push by some members of Congress to enact legislation that puts more safeguards in place for the use of AI.

A bill from Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand would ensure that human commanders would remain in control of making life-and-death decisions and would ban the use of AI entirely when it comes to nuclear weapons, domestic surveillance and autonomous weapons systems.

She saw the movie, obviously.

“The most critical decisions affecting our national security and the lives of our service members must always be made by human beings, not unaccountable machines,” she said in a statement earlier this month.

Skynet. Say it. Skynet.

“Right now, the Pentagon is moving toward deploying incredibly powerful AI technology without commonsense guardrails in place, which could have catastrophic consequences that make all of us less safe,” she added. “We must act now – not to stifle technological progress, but to establish clear rules of the road that keep humans in charge and keep AI’s use in warfare smart and safe.”

Call me crazy, but putting our national security in the hands of a tiny, puffed-up peacock of a man, like Hegseth, and a drug-addled welfare case, scamming our taxpayers out of billions does not seem like the kind of moves that ensure a peaceful and prosperous future. Truly, nothing in our nation seems safe or moving in the right direction, at this point.

I must insist that just like the film, “Idiocracy,” “The Terminator” was not meant to be a blueprint for the future, yet, here we are.

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