Grayfox
Professional
Ok, bear with me here. I've had this crazy notion stuck in my head and wanna just put it out there and get reactions. 
There's lots of worry these days about AI and what it might do. Plenty of jokes about Skynet and Terminators. That ain't gonna happen.
But I'm wondering if something like Colossus could happen. I read the book in the late 1960s and saw the movie "Colossus: The Forbin Project" way back in 1970 and its stuck with me for some reason.
Brief summary for those who haven't seen the movie : The U.S. builds a super computer and gives it control of our nuclear arsenal. The goal is to remove the possibility of starting WW III by human error or accident. Right off Colossus finds a similar system in Russia. The two computers link into one. They now have control of both U.S. and Russia's nuclear weapons. Colossus then decides that human's are unable to take care of themselves and must be controlled for their own good. Failure to follow instructions will result in the launch of a missile and destruction of a city.
Now I know that nobody in their right mind would give AI control of nuclear weapons. But I can easily see bureaucrats giving AI control of vital infrastructure. What if this thing decides we need controlling? If we fail to follow its orders it could turn all the traffic lights in Los Angeles green at the same time. Wipe out the stock market? Turn off Air Traffic Control? It could kill us in a million different ways.
Computers have become such an integral part of our daily lives, what happens if we lose control of them? It seems various Cyber Attacks happen almost daily. Many of them assisted by AI.
BTW: The XAI Data Center located in South Memphis, TN is named Colossus. Coincidence?
So, am I crazy or what?
There's lots of worry these days about AI and what it might do. Plenty of jokes about Skynet and Terminators. That ain't gonna happen.
But I'm wondering if something like Colossus could happen. I read the book in the late 1960s and saw the movie "Colossus: The Forbin Project" way back in 1970 and its stuck with me for some reason.
Brief summary for those who haven't seen the movie : The U.S. builds a super computer and gives it control of our nuclear arsenal. The goal is to remove the possibility of starting WW III by human error or accident. Right off Colossus finds a similar system in Russia. The two computers link into one. They now have control of both U.S. and Russia's nuclear weapons. Colossus then decides that human's are unable to take care of themselves and must be controlled for their own good. Failure to follow instructions will result in the launch of a missile and destruction of a city.
Now I know that nobody in their right mind would give AI control of nuclear weapons. But I can easily see bureaucrats giving AI control of vital infrastructure. What if this thing decides we need controlling? If we fail to follow its orders it could turn all the traffic lights in Los Angeles green at the same time. Wipe out the stock market? Turn off Air Traffic Control? It could kill us in a million different ways.
Computers have become such an integral part of our daily lives, what happens if we lose control of them? It seems various Cyber Attacks happen almost daily. Many of them assisted by AI.
BTW: The XAI Data Center located in South Memphis, TN is named Colossus. Coincidence?
So, am I crazy or what?
