Welcome to the AI dystopia no one asked for, courtesy of Silicon Valley

A couple of weeks ago, I rewatched Jurassic Park for probably the 10th time since the movie came out 30 years ago. (As an aside, it really holds up — 10/10, no notes.)

A couple of weeks ago, I rewatched Jurassic Park for probably the 10th time since the movie came out 30 years ago. (As an aside, it really holds up — 10/10, no notes.) Early in the plot, when the guests are discussing their impressions of the park, Jeff Goldblum’s character (also 10/10, just perfect) launches into a speech so prescient you could sub out all the dinosaur stuff and map it onto the modern debate around artificial intelligence. “Don’t you see the danger, John, inherent in what you’re doing here? Genetic power is the most awesome force the planet’s ever seen, but you wield it like a kid that’s found his dad’s gun … You stood on the shoulders of geniuses to accomplish something as fast as you could, and before you even knew what you had, you patented it, and packaged it, and slapped it on a plastic lunchbox, and now you’re selling it.” And then comes the line that later launched a thousand memes: “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn’t stop to think if they should.” Naturally, the skeptic of the group is dismissed as a Luddite and the movie carries on. (Spoiler alert: The Luddite was right!) AI skeptics — who are legion, and not necessarily part of the fringe tin foil hat crowd — are begging Silicon Valley to take a beat before unleashing AI to the world.