When I was 15, I went with a friend to watch 2001: A Space Odyssey. I didn’t understand most of it. But I understood the part about Hal, the rogue computer. Computers were in their infancy back then, and although Hal made a good story, it was science fiction.

Nine years later, I took my young family to see Star Wars: A New Hope. We liked the two droids, C3PO and R2D2, although we knew they were actors disguised as thinking and feeling robots. Then this past month, my family saw Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One. I do not love action movies, as I find the chase and fight scenes drag on too long. But I admire Tom Cruise and the stunts he can still do at age 61. As we left the theater, my family began discussing the film. I commented that the movie was entertaining, but an artificially intelligent entity taking over the world seemed far-fetched. I then stopped myself, realizing the future is now.  

The world is swiftly transforming because of artificial intelligence. And the revolution is just beginning. In 2017, a Brookings Institute survey of business executives found that only 17 percent knew what artificial intelligence was, let alone how it would change every aspect of our lives. Early computers were capable only of making predetermined responses. Or, as computer geeks called it, “garbage in, garbage out.” But using artificial intelligence algorithms, today’s machines take information from various sources, analyze it immediately, and make decisions based on the analysis of those data. What’s more, today’s computers can learn and adapt as it makes decisions.

And now, AI is everywhere, from finance, health care, law, and national security to transportation. As a lawyer, I first experienced AI in connection with lawsuits. Part of every lawsuit is discovery, where the parties exchange documents related to the case. Traditionally, an army of lawyers and paralegals would need to review each page of every document to find a smoking gun or two that would turn the case in their favor. And so, one of the tricks litigators often employed was to bury the other side in documents, making finding that smoking gun nearly impossible. But now, documents are digitally scanned, and machines search for keywords in the documents. What used to take weeks to complete, discovery can be accomplished in a few hours.

As a writer, I also use AI. Sitting on my bookshelf gathering dust are three reference books I used to use constantly: The Dictionary of Concise Writing, Woe is I (the best grammar book ever written), and Punctuation Plain & Simple. These books sit unopened on my bookshelf now because AI helps me write concisely and corrects my spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors. But I haven’t let AI take over completely—at least not yet. My AI program makes suggestions, and I decide whether or not to incorporate them.

But as AI improves, the need for humans decreases. And that is one of the biggest fears about AI—eliminating jobs usually filled by a living, breathing person. Do we need mortgage brokers when a machine can predict a borrower’s creditworthiness more accurately? Do we need financial advisors when devices can create plans tailored to any individual? Do we need truck or taxi drivers when vehicles can now drive themselves and do it safer than humans? And those are just a few examples.

We are in the middle of labor disputes with Hollywood actors and writers. The actors are concerned (in part) with how AI can generate extras in films, removing a source of income for many lower-tired actors trying to make names for themselves. And writers worry about how AI might replace them altogether. My son-in-law had to speak in Church last month. So, primarily out of curiosity, my daughter asked an AI program to write his talk. The program wrote a very acceptable sermon covering most of the principles of the assigned topic.  All my son-in-law had to do was expand a few items with personal examples to fill the time allotted for his talk. I was impressed by what I read, and at first blush, if my daughter hadn’t tipped me off, I would not have known a computer wrote it. Similarly, how does anyone know AI didn’t write this blog?

But like most developing technology, AI can be used for evil as well as good. Technology has caused a change in our relationships. Now, instead of interacting with people face-to-face, we rely on social media and texting for our relationships. The film Her[i] takes it to an extreme as the lead character Theodore (played by Joaquin Phoenix) falls in love with Samantha—the voice on his phone (voiced by Scarlett Johansson). Here is a crazy scene from the movie:

But maybe it’s not as crazy as it seems. Now, we often consider Siri and Alexa to be our friends. Is it much of a leap to consider them a lover?

But the more harmful fear is what happens to humanity if our future versions of AI, like the computer Hal in 2001: A Space Odyssey, run amok. In Ex Machina,[ii] Caleb, a young programmer (played by Domhnall Gleeson), is hired to evaluate the human qualities of an AI humanoid named Ava (played by Alicia Vikander). Check out this scene:

Spoiler Alert! Ava’s human characteristics are so good that Caleb falls in love with her. But it’s all a sham. Ava doesn’t want love, she wants freedom—to escape the confines of her creator’s home.

Falling in love with an operating system’s voice or a humanoid is tame compared to the crisis Tom Cruise facings in Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One—the potential destruction of humankind. Which brings me to another movie I recently saw. Oppenheimer[iii] is the story of how Robert Oppenheimer led a team of scientists tasked with creating the world’s most devastating weapon of mass destruction—the atomic bomb. But the heart of the story is the moral conflict Oppenheimer experiences in creating such a weapon and how the government throws him under the bus when it no longer needs him. On the one hand, he is excited over the prospect of testing theories of physics and mathematics and their practical applications in ending the second world war. And he knew he was in an arms race with Nazi Germany over who could develop it first. But there is (or at least should be) accountability with every creation. After the devastation his invention caused at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Robert Oppenheimer said, “We thought of the legend of Prometheus, of that deep sense of guilt in man’s new powers that reflects his recognition of evil, and his long knowledge of it.”

Similarly, Geoffrey Hinton, widely considered one of the pioneers of AI, and knowing the evils that could result from it, said, “I console myself with the normal excuse: If I hadn’t done it, somebody else would have.”

Here is the trailer for Oppenheimer:

Very little in this life is black or white. It will be no different with artificial intelligence. I hold out hope that AI will be smart enough to learn the dark consequences of the evil side of AI, as we have about nuclear weapons.

One of my favorite movies is the 1983 film, War Games,[iv] where a computer controlling nuclear weapons learns about mutual assured destruction from playing tic-tac-toe—a game that no one ever wins. Please check out this scene:

I hope artificial intelligence will do the same—before it’s too late.

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[i] Her:

• Production Companies: Annapurna Pictures and Stage 6 Films
• Director: Spike Jonze
• Screenwriter: Spike Jonze
• Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, and Scarlett Johansson
• Release Date: January 10, 2014

[ii] Ex Machina:

• Production Companies: A24, Universal Pictures, and Film4
• Director: Alex Garland
• Screenwriter: Alex Garland
• Starring:  Alicia Vikander, Domhnall Gleeson, and Oscar Isaac
• Release Date: April 24, 2015

[iii] Oppenheimer:

• Production Companies: Universal Pictures, Atlas Entertainment, and Gadget Films
• Director: Christopher Nolan
• Screenwriters: Christopher Nolan, Kai Bird, and Martin Sherwin
• Starring: Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, and Matt Damon
• Release Date: July 21, 2023

[iv] War Games:

• Production Companies: United Artists and Sherwood Productions
• Director: John Badham
• Screenwriters: Lawrence Lasker, Walter F. Parkes, and Walon Green
• Starring: Matthew Broderick, Ally Sheedy, and John Wood
• Release Date: June 3, 1983