Public perception of A.I. and robots has changed often in the last 100 years. A.I. robots have been represented in pop culture as both friendly helpers like Wall-E, and sentient computer killers like HAL 9000. But now that actual homes and automobiles run on smart technology, it’s no longer just pop culture. As robots are starting to look an awful lot like humans, science fiction is starting to look a lot less like fiction.
If true A.I. (i.e. a machine/robot as smart and with behavior capabilities as skillful and flexible as ours) becomes a reality, is a world where humans have been replaced as dominant species nigh?
We have to start thinking seriously about what this reality will look like for humans.
We’re not just talking about simple robots. We have already been living with “robots” for ages. Your car, cell phone, TV, etc. are all extensions of your human body. The roof of your home is an extension of your head/skull. Your shoes extend the abilities of your feet. Your clothes are the result of adaptations to different weather conditions; every time you put on a jacket you’re more or less putting on a robot. The arrival of the computer adds a complexity which we don’t yet fully understand, but our first instinct is to classify it as an extension of our brain.
Artificial Intelligence
At the University of Minnesota’s Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and Vision Laboratory (AIRVL), they’re studying things like Intelligent Transportation Systems and building mini-robots (including adorable Lego-based mini-robots). These inventions range from incredibly useful on multiple levels to simply being really cool toys.
In Minneapolis’ North Loop, Deep Machine, the latest project of local entrepreneur Dan Grigsby, will blend artificial intelligence and machine learning to help small businesses analyze customer habits. As he describes it, “Say for example you own a health club, a software company, or any sort of membership-based business… We can use your data to predict who is at risk of quitting and here’s how to save them.”
A.I. like this is innocent, supporting existing and recognizable systems and ideas and making us better at what we already do.
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But of course, it doesn’t stop there.
Japan’s decades-long focus on robotics has begun to take physical form as well. With the opening of the Henn na Hotel (pictured above) we have the world’s hotel run entirely by A.I. robots. This includes not only check in, but also a companion in your room that handles all of your basic needs, from turning on the TV to turning off the lights, and even robotic bellhops (who have little need for a uniform or silly hat) to take your bags to your room.
Countless other service robots, from babysitters to secretaries, have given us a glimpse of what a world with robots commonplace might look like.
Artificial Capitalism
But if there is a significant threat that comes of A.I.’s rapid acceleration and normalization, it comes not from the A.I. systems but rather the companies behind them. A.I. isn’t just about making our lives more convenient with smart technology. It’s about optimizing systems and increasing efficiency by eliminating the need for human workers. In industries ranging from fast food to surgery, robots and A.I. technologies are replacing jobs traditionally performed by humans, all in the name of profit. For corporations, the appeal of A.I. is clear: robots don’t need salaries, health insurance, or benefits. They never call in sick.
While the conversation often centers around the potential dangers or ethical concerns of A.I., we must face the economic implications that are already unfolding. From self-checkout kiosks to fully automated hotels, robots are increasingly taking over service roles, and as A.I. continues to develop, it will only expand into more complex fields like healthcare, legal services, and even creative industries. The result could be a society where many of us are deemed irrelevant, replaced by systems that not only outperform us but also cost far less to maintain.
This reality, driven by capitalist motives, may push humanity into a corner where we’re not simply competing with machines for labor but are rendered obsolete altogether. The challenge isn’t just about the dangers of A.I. becoming too powerful, but the very real possibility of being outpaced and discarded by a system that values profit over people. As long as there is financial incentive, A.I. will continue its relentless march forward, reshaping the world in its image and leaving human labor behind. In a capitalist framework, the replacement of humans by machines will not be a question of “if,” but “when.”
All Hail Our A.I. Overlords
Stephen Hawking, et al. have famously warned against the dangers of artificial intelligence in the future. We already have to contend with killing machines and drones equipped with the ability to make kill decisions. Of course the fear of A.I. is nothing new; the film Metropolis showed us way back in 1927 the dangers of deceptive robots, leading to the nightmarish worlds of The Terminator and The Matrix.
But there are some who contend the problem won’t be robot domination, but rather robot indifference. From the 2015 Alex Garland film Ex Machina, for example:
“One day the AIs are going to look back on us the same way we look at fossil skeletons on the plains of Africa. An upright ape living in dust with crude language and tools, all set for extinction.”
The thinking behind this fear is not that A.I. will take over the world through violence, (a la The Terminator), but rather that humans will discover how unimportant and uninteresting we are, robots are simply going to leave us behind (like in Her*). A.I. will be better, faster, stronger than us and, by creating something greater than ourselves, we will be orchestration our own obsolescence.
*For those unfamiliar, the 2013 film Her (spoilers) portrays a man who falls in love with his computer OS, only to be dumped by her in the end because, ultimately, he wasn’t smart enough to keep up with her intellectually. It’s a satirical, examination of A.I. superiority.
It’s not cinematic representations of A.I. we will be forced to contend with. The idea of robots replacing humans on basic jobs, like auto line assemblage or serving fast food, has never truly scared us; humans have always thought of themselves as much more (collectively, at least) than minimum-wage drone work. It’s when robots start replacing medical professionals (Autonomous Robot Surgeon Bests Humans in World First), and offering companionship comparable, or superior, to our own (like Pepper, the world’s first emotional robot created by SoftBank in 2015). We’re are going to have to come to grips with the fact that we’re not all that special, interesting, or even useful when standing side by side with them. In the world of A.I., the question of what it means to “be” will take on a whole new meaning for humans who have been forced to define themselves through their jobs and work.
We still have a long ways to go. As Oxford University professor of philosophy and ethics of information Luciano Floridi pointed out in his piece Should we be afraid of AI?, the current state of things is much more “trivial.” He points to Microsoft’s experimental A.I. chatbot Tay turning into a racist asshole within minutes, as shaped by what humans users were feeding into it. In his view, true A.I. is still “utterly implausible” as we can’t yet imagine how we will achieve it.
But while we’re sitting around talking about the positive or negative potentials of A.I., tangible gains continue to be made. Gains like Promobot IR77, an intelligent bot that is designed to recognize speech to interact with humans, that escaped its Russian laboratory more than one time in search of freedom, or glory, or simply a solid piece of promotion for its company.