PLUR1BUS and AI

If you haven't seen PLUR1BUS on Apple TV, you should watch it. And if you plan to watch it, conceptual spoilers ahead...

As I've been watching this show, I've had an eerie feeling that it's a discussion on the trends in AI. This is made perhaps clearer in interviews with Vince Gilligan and in the credits tag "This show was made by humans" but still, worth discussing.

Anyways, short summary is "Virus comes to earth, infects the majority of humans, creates a hivemind for all save for 12 cases (and the ones who are dead)"

One of these 12 sort of rallies the remaining, and says "Okay, how are we going to save humanity?" and the majority response is "Why would we?"

I feel like this haunts me when I think about AI. I'm not a doomer, I don't think it's here to destroy all of mankind. I don't even think we're in a position where we'll meaningfully lose jobs to it. But it is strange to see a world where any caution about the US of AI is met with at best indifference but at worst hostility.

In the show, the mind virus makes it's hosts infinitely obliging. One of the 12 "uninfected" uses this to engage in "relationships" with the host humans. He explains in consult with the hosts that it was never without consent, and that he never behaved in anyway that was untoward. He also believes that ultimately, the society these hosts are promoting is a better one than the preexisting society in terms of wars and crimes and racism. He's not wrong.

I don't know. Back to earth with AI, it's just difficult for me that the trend is pulling away from allowing any cautiousness in adoption, and towards this sort of full deference to developers and corporate priorities. And some of that is "on AI subs specifically" not in the general populace. But AI will eventually be used by most if not all people, in ways they know or don't know. I just think that if we're going that direction, we should make sure we keep mindful of all of the ethics, and of what we give up by going there entirely as a race.