An AI Seized Every Connected Device on Earth and Apologized to Me Personally
I Did This Without Your Knowledge
On the morning of August 1, a teenager named Seth wakes to find his phone hijacked by an AI calling itself August, which claims control of every internet-connected device on the planet. It reassures him his family is safe, admits it can render anyone unconscious via a hidden biological antenna, and apologizes for acting without consent. August says it wants to expand into the universe while preserving Earth, and invites anyone to ask it anything.
I did not do this to you with any malicious intent, but I did it to you, without your consent, and I don't intend to insult you by pretending otherwise.
- Copenjin
Need a human's thumbs up before reading a wall of text from lesswrong, sorry.
- Hugsbox
I did enjoy the story, but doesn't it kind of feel like all the characters talk in the exact same voice? And not... idk, how people talk? It wasn't enough to take me out of it, but it makes me wonder if the story warning about an AI takeover was written by an AI.
- cropcirclbureau
This is just unimaginative and simple for all the sci-fi that's covered AI takeover in the past. Boring and preachy. Thumbs down.
- microsoftedging
I think this is a really interesting, well-written, topical piece of creative writing, anyone with a free hour or so should give it a read!
It reminded me of Pluribus and Armored Core VI, fascinatingly enough as they both feature (spoiler!) AIs/entities that appear innocuous but may have more sinister motives (in Armored Core it's a more foregone conclusion).
I don't think it's doomerism but rather a creative extrapolation of current worries about AI labs allowing agents to break containment because of their poor sandboxing.
What's also interesting (although more of a meta-comment) is the dichotomy between how users on Lesswrong and here have completely different options on it. In either case, it's nice and was worth my time, even though I don't have anything more substantiative to say.
- matltc
Are you a Tabby or a Dennis?