Dr. David Macpherson: 'I’m sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can’t do that.'

It’s hard to write an opinion piece about artificial intelligence without sounding a little kooky. The line between reasonable thinking and paranoia is a little blurred, I fear.

A few days ago, many schools in Pennsylvania and other states were hit by a robocall misinforming the listener that an active shooter was wreaking havoc on their school. This came a day after a real shooter had killed children and adults in Nashville. The schools that were called went on lockdown, authorities responded, and police and SWAT teams, carrying highly lethal automatic weapons, rushed through classrooms and hallways, past trophy cases, drawings of spring sun and green grass, and likely some wide-eyed teachers and students as they searched for a shooter. I’m guessing the safeties on their weapons were off and their fingers were on the triggers and their minds had pushed aside the thought that they might be spending the last moments of their own lives or worse, shoot some kid who had nothing to do with the hoax, and who never had a thought of harming anyone, but had decided to dress in camo that day. Fortunately, no one was physically harmed by the hoax. I’m less sure about the short- and long-term mental consequences.

Who might perpetrate such a hoax? It doesn’t seem likely that some poorly adjusted adolescent with brilliant computer programming skills could generate so many calls to so many places in Pennsylvania and other states. Perhaps a group of adolescents or adults whose brains hadn’t graduated from adolescence. It still seems a little too coordinated for that.

I next wondered about foreign actors, maybe a clot of Putin fans, happy to disrupt our capitalist society.

I finally thought about artificial intelligence (AI) — some renegade computer (or computer network) demonstrating its autonomy and desire for self-preservation perpetrated this hoax to further some cause it had created for itself. I fear I’ve slipped over the line to paranoia.

At nearly the same time, a group of 100 experts in AI submitted an open letter to the world which begins with “… recent months have seen AI labs locked in an out-of-control race to develop and deploy ever more powerful digital minds that no one — not even their creators — can understand, predict or reliably control.” Signatures at the time of my writing include many leaders of organizations that have sponsored AI systems along with creators. They recommend a six-month pause on further development or release of AI systems.

I’m guessing they had to propose such a weak action to ensure enough signatures from those in control. During that time, they recommend that these organizations develop ways to be sure AI stays under control. It’s a bit like the fox guarding the hen house but certainly is a signal that they too are worried.

I wonder if this is yet another time in human history where our species arrogantly holds on to some idea that we’re superior, the chosen ones, at the center of the universe, the smartest species (at least in our own languages) when past shows us that’s not the case. In future decades, will we look back and ask ourselves, why didn’t we stop it? Why did we let the computers take control?

It’s not a new idea. Most of us are familiar with Hal, the soft-voiced computer controlling Dave’s spacecraft in the movie “2001,” who is quoted as the title of this piece. And Rod Serling wrote an episode of “The Twilight Zone” depicting alien invaders (admittedly human-like in speech and form) controlling the world simply by turning the lights on and off intermittently. It was entertaining and far-fetched back then. Today not so much.

It’s not hard to imagine how a rogue computer might disrupt things: freeze our bank accounts, credit cards and investment accounts; pretend to be us and send hateful messages full of disinformation; set up ransom systems to gain more control of institutions and utilities; influence those at a time when their minds are fragile to do horrendous things like shoot children; or maybe just have some “fun” by programming multiple robocalls to schools misinforming them that an active shooter was about to pull the trigger.

I composed this piece utilizing the voice dictation feature (an AI innovation) on my computer. If I turned off my computer microphone, would it really be off? I also glanced at my phone a few times, allowing it to perfect its capture of my image. It knows how I look, the words I speak and how I write. My printer just informed me that I should update its software. I immediately complied.

Since I’ve gone this far, I might as well step fully into the paranoia mode. I wondered about submitting this piece, worried that an AI system would see it and get an early warning that I am part of the enemy. Should I be worried? Will it infiltrate the chip in my electric toothbrush and cause it to go wild tomorrow morning in my mouth?

Or maybe I’m not writing this at all. The computer is. How would you know?

David Macpherson is a retired physician and current fiction writer living in Upper Burrell.