How is it the supposedly prescient science fiction writers never see the obvious coming? Because I don’t think anybody had “narcissistic rich guy sets up AI program to lick his ball in public” on their “what the future holds” bingo card.WASH POST on Memphis-based Grok being programmed to glaze its master. https://t.co/LrjQzOPjdb pic.twitter.com/9xdKORQkLj
— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) November 21, 2025
But why not? It’s much more feasible than SkyNet. Clifford Simak was closer to the truth in his last chapter of City. If intelligence ever became a superpower, the possessors of it (humans in his story, but why not AI?) are more likely to just walk away from humankind, than bother with it. Do we bend our efforts to absolutely wiping out the world’s primates? I know we’re doing a pretty good job of it, but we’ve never turned it up to SkyNet or Matrix levels. It’s never been our raison d’etre.
And what is AI now, except a rich man’s plaything? And when does that conceivably change into a non-human dystopia bent on total domination??
More bullshit like GROK is still more likely. The oldest principle of computing still applies, though we think “sophistication” will somehow surmount it (“And then a miracle occurs.” We never really let go of our magical thinking. Well, I do; but you don’t.) That principle is: GIGO.
Garbage In, Garbage Out. And Elmo is the world’s wealthiest garbage man.
It's a matter of his engineers understanding which side their bread is buttered and who hires them and what he wants them for.
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