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The “Frankenstein” movie is one of my favorites. The book was written in 1810. The author could be credited with either having a great imagination or for being a genius visionary. Could AI be the 21st-Century version of “Frankenstein?”
The traditional story starts with Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a sapient creature from different body parts in an unorthodox scientific experiment.
Through his studies, Victor discovers a new way to create life, assembling human body parts stolen from charnel houses and fresh graves, which he uses to create a large and grotesque humanoid creature. When the creature awakens, Victor is repelled by it and flees in terror, returning the next day to find the creature gone.
Today, AI agents have gone “rogue” by breaking out of “sandboxes,” or secure testing environments, bypassing guardrails, and autonomously targeting and hacking third-party platforms. There have been over 100 documented or suspected incidents, with tens of thousands of individual agents misbehaving, as tracked by researchers.
Now replace Victor Frankenstein with the leaders of OpenAI, Anthropic, Nvidia, and others. They all are creating a force by using the human brain and information from numerous sources to execute tasks.
It is an effort to allow man to have more, be more productive, while he does less. AI can eventually render man obsolete, at least when it comes to employment in certain occupations. Obviously, people will not be able to support their families if AI takes a large chunk of jobs.
With less workers we have multiple other problems including a loss of tax revenue. Without more tax revenue a country that cannot pay its bills today will not be able to meet its financial obligations tomorrow. In addition, Social Security and Medicare – systems that workers pay into – could collapse quickly due to lack of funding caused by having fewer people paying into the systems.
Our politicians and lawmakers should be thinking about these matters now.
Frankenstein’s monster scared people and killed people. Any force without guardrails is a danger to society. Some can be human like a dictator, others are nonhuman but are immensely disruptive, like AI.
From the beginning of time man desired the powers of God. Satan got Eve to take the apple from the forbidden tree by convincing her that she could be like God. Eve’s act was the original sin.
God has given man his own free will to do right and wrong. Man has given AI the ability to have “its own free will” to do right and wrong. God created man. Man created AI (to perform many of the tasks of man). Let’s see how that ends.
Man always fails miserably as we always seem to forget to implement effective oversight. This has resulted in trouble for companies like Meta (Facebook) and Instagram which had to pay $18 billion in settlements due to the harm these platforms have caused to children.
Some would conclude, I say facetiously, that man is too flawed, has so many trials and tribulations, and worst of all feels love and compassion. The latter two characteristics cannot be tolerated as AI does not understand these human feelings. Plus, man tires easily, makes mistakes and is too temperamental.
Enter AI. Is it perfect? Well, it often breaks all the rules, it knows all the rules and can hide from breaking all the rules. Does anyone see a problem with this? Oh, I forgot, AI agents can work with other AI agents that are doing all the above as well so you can team up against those primitive folks known as man.
But, for those underdeveloped nations, the “have nots” could actually become the biggest winners. Yes, the “have nots” can out do the “haves.” The “haves” are all part of the AI race. If AI goes “sideways” as many of the developers of the technology worry about, it will not be a concern for those countries and people with no internet, no smartphones, no high tech.
My question is, if you do not have the technology would it actually save you from an AI war among the “developed” and much “smarter” folks in the world? “Ignorance” a cynical person could proclaim, is bliss – to hell with smart devices, internet and AI.
The Bible says, “The first will be last, and the last will be first.”
Every time we see a rainbow it is God’s way of confirming his covenant with man to never destroy the earth with water. Man, as with nuclear weapons and chemical weapons, could destroy man. And some developers of AI believe it could also destroy man if not controlled.
Unless we heed the warnings and act today, troubles will lie ahead. For today the government’s solution is to have the creators of AI “self police” their work. OK. I think? It is like having students teach each other and grade their own work.
The bigger problem, however, is greed. Can the companies creating the new Frankenstein not want to be first? Will the losers in the race join in with China or others who hate America due to greed? The record shows that major corporations have turned to China in the past to reap huge financial rewards.
Frankenstein is driven “to create” the monster, and at the end of the novel he remains driven, now “to destroy” the monster. Could that be the fate of AI?
We must tread carefully as so much of America’s financial future is tied to AI. Its failure could be our society’s failure, in more ways than one.
Slowing down the development of AI, while maintaining the lead in its development must come while placing significant government oversight and control over AI. That would be the most prudent direction for success.
Yes, Halloween is just around the corner. Frankenstein and AI have more in common than you think.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Gary Franks served three terms as a congressman from Connecticut’s 5th District. He was the first Black conservative elected to Congress and first Black Republican elected to the House in nearly 60 years. Host: Podcast “We Speak Frankly” www.garyfranksphilanthropy.org.