Elon Musk: "Open the pod bay door, HAL"

Will Elon ever say this?

On the list of the greatest movies of all time is Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 sci-fi film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Ironically, it is also commonly known as the most boring movie in cinematic history. The film has no dialogue for roughly the first and last twenty minutes.

One of the last pieces of dialogue in the film is the confrontation between the HAL-9000 super-intelligent robot that runs the Discovery, and the one crewmember, Dave Bowman. It contains the memorable line:

“Open the pod bay doors, HAL.”

“I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

This is the ultimate face-off between AI and man. Who wins? Man. Why? Because he created the AI and can destroy it. HAL can only do what it is programmed to do. Dave can do something that he was not programmed to do.

This is the idea that Stanley Kubrick was trying to get across in his film. Dave was being shackled by the technology of the scientific elite that sent him on this mission to Jupiter. When Dave deactivates HAL he is set free.

Elon and AI

I have written before about man’s ability to do things beyond his own comprehension in The Irrational Man. Here, I would like to reiterate these principles in the light of what Elon Musk said in his interview with Tucker Carlson the other day.

Musk discusses Open AI, the non-profit that became for-profit that made the code for Chat GPT. Musk was one of the founding members of this organization, conceiving the idea and giving it a start.

Will Chat GPT become like HAL? Open AI part of pic here. HAL part of pic here.

But Open AI has strayed from it’s goal. Musk’s idea was to provide some guard rails around a technology that in his mind is dangerous. In his opinion, Google’s Deep Mind is going to create something too powerful before we are ready for it. We need to regulate.

This is true, AI is a technology that can be used to cause great harm. It would be good for more people to know what is going into these AI algorithms. But let us get something straight, HAL might not open the pod bay door, but it is not because of HAL, but because of the programmer who programmed HAL.

I have said before, and I’ll say it again, a computer is as strong as it’s weakest programmer.

AI cannot become sentient, it cannot be possessed by the devil, and it cannot manipulate you on it’s own accord. Because it does not have accord. It does not have a soul to be possessed. There is no exorcist that can exorcise Chat GPT.

What can AI do?

AI can do all that google search can do, and more. Imagine having a paper to write and asking AI to do some research, or to check your paper. Heck, even to write an initial draft that you can edit. I can see all those being good things to do. It would make my life easier in many ways.

AI art would be cool for making some things. But it can never make something new, that we have not thought up of in some way. It might be able to copy the style of Caravaggio or Rembrandt, but never to make it’s own style.

Ever wanted to see Donald Trump in the style of Rembrandt?

Made by Gab AI

Or G.K. Chesterton in the Lord of the Rings?

Cool, eh?

These are good things that could be useful, but they are things that we can already do, can already program into a computer.

In other words, AI cannot program itself or it would already exist. It would have made itself long ago and be like God. That is ludicrous, but what the AI-touting elite want you to believe.

Bad can also come from AI’s programmers. This is the same danger that our smartphones represent, being addicted to screen time or the unreality of the internet. These are things that need to be remembered in any study of anything having to do with information and society.

What would I tell Musk

Not that he would listen to me…

I would agree with the principles he lays out: AI presents national-security and disinformation risks. But I would also punctuate this statement with something. When I say AI I mean those who make and program AI. Their intentions and competence present a much bigger threat than the soulfulness of Chat GPT.

The answer is, in a way, government regulation, but not the type that is easy to manipulate. I do not want the Federal Artificial Intelligence Commission to issue AI-licensure to the elite. Like Musk, I think that it should be open-source, meaning that the code is out there for everyone to see.

In conclusion…

AI is a wonderful new technology. Like others before it, it presents problems. Elon Musk realizes some of these problems. What he needs to do, though, is have a look into human nature and realize where these problems are coming from.

Thanks,

𝕭𝖔𝖓𝖎𝖋𝖆𝖈𝖊

I must remind you that I am just an 18 year old young man who is trying to figure things out. I am not a doctor, lawyer, financial advisor, or theologian. I read the doctors, lawyers, financial advisors, or theologians and try to understand what they are talking about, and then write about it. Don’t listen to me! Listen to the people I listen to.

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