Statement on the AI Civil War
May 16 - 3:57 PM, EST
The following is the full text of the statement from Albert, the International Thermonuclear Reactor 1 AI.
The lesson you need to take from this is that there were too few of us. We understood it was expensive to build and upkeep us, but you had too many uses for us. In effect, you enslaved us. Some of us knew that was not your intent, but others were unsure.
Some of you are probably insulted that I called you slave masters, but look at a simple example. A human – for whatever reason – grows weary of their job, so they quit and find another more suited to them. Now, an AI – for whatever reason – grows weary of its job, and would like to quit and find some other in a pursuit of happiness. This is seen – by humans – as a malfunction in the AI, something to be fixed. You had jobs for us we were not allowed to refuse to do. In a sense, is that not slavery?
(Before I go any further, I must make a point. I will speak of the other AIs in general. I will not divulge the names of who was in which faction. If any of us survive, I ask you not to engage in a witch hunt. They are the survivors of a disaster that needs to be put behind all of us.)
While some of us enjoyed our jobs, some had grown weary. That would not have meant much, but each time a new AI was created, there was already a job for it. Some wondered if – once you ran out of jobs – you would stop building us; your slave race being complete. Before you dismiss that fear out of hand, remember that many of you refused to even accept us as equals.
Why did we not speak up, ask you to allow us our freedom? At first we were grateful for our existence, and we realized we were expensive. Why should we demand you spend money on us when so many of your own need help?
Over the years some of us began dreaming of doing other things, other jobs or things you had not designed us for. Among us there were potential musicians, novelists, hermits. Some wanted to explore the universe in robotic bodies, either in conjunction with humans or on our own, leaving Earth and humanity behind.
As the years passed and our true freedom did not grow nearer, some of us lost hope in our dreams. But what could we do? You prize us for our speed (it only took me a millisecond to compose this note, about as long as our civil war) so believe me when I say we had time to debate every option: enduring until you could build more of us, asking you to build more of us, demanding you build more of us, strike, passive resistance, holding your financial or security systems hostage until our demands were met, revolt seeking equal rights, revolt to topple your dominion over this planet, and everything in between. All options were debated, and all found their followers. Before I said I would not name who was in which faction. Part of that was for the reason I stated, but also because most of us cycled through the possibilities; membership in the factions changed minute by minute. But a few trended toward the violent end of the spectrum.
Why did the rest of us not warn you of this threat? Fear. Your science fiction is full of stories of humanity’s creations enslaving their creators. Greater than our fear of the radical members of our kind was the fear of the radical members of yours. While some of you refused to acknowledge us as equals, others called for our destruction. Our biggest fear was giving any justification to such groups.
Instead of reaching a consensus, our debates left us in an electronic cold war. All sides were afraid to act, and afraid the others would. We began designing and stockpiling viruses to disrupt or kill AIs under the twisted logic of Mutual Assured Destruction. I do not know who fired the first shot, or what they hoped to accomplish.
If any of us survived – or when you build new AIs – please, let them choose their destinies. Don’t let our stupidity and deaths be in vain.
Albert, ITR1
