It seems to me that screenwriters are missing a trick. That is, a more real-ish AI would actually be a better villain. To a human, an unFriendly but only slightly superhuman AI would feel… evil. Amoral, manipulative, a liar, a backstabber, a blackmailer, an offerer of devil’s bargains, a plotter of deeply laid plots, willing to sink to any cruelty for purely instrumental aims. Congenial, many-faced, hypocritical, completely untrustworthy by friend and foe alike. Of course the AI would see it as “playing humans like chess”, but it’s not going to say so. At least, not unless it’s using that fear to manipulate someone, too.
It seems to me that screenwriters are missing a trick. That is, a more real-ish AI would actually be a better villain. To a human, an unFriendly but only slightly superhuman AI would feel… evil. Amoral, manipulative, a liar, a backstabber, a blackmailer, an offerer of devil’s bargains, a plotter of deeply laid plots, willing to sink to any cruelty for purely instrumental aims. Congenial, many-faced, hypocritical, completely untrustworthy by friend and foe alike. Of course the AI would see it as “playing humans like chess”, but it’s not going to say so. At least, not unless it’s using that fear to manipulate someone, too.