It seems a shame that likely the most important film you’ll see this year is completely irrelevant. I should qualify; irrelevant to anyone who might be reading this. Yes, the AI revolution is upon is. Yes, we are no longer the dominant species on the planet. No, there’s probably nothing you can do about it if you haven’t already got the GDP of a wealthy nation at your disposal.
Yup, our computer overlords will decide your fate and there ain’t much you can do about it.
Lemme back up: Artificial Intelligence (or AI) is the most important innovation in human history. This is true because a leap in AI causes a leap in every other branch of knowledge. [For example: if you discover a new vaccine, you’ve advanced the field of medicine. If you advance AI, however, you advance every science, and every non-science to boot.] Not only can a leap in AI cause such, but because AI learns by itself, the advancement is perpetual and independent of human input.
In a way this is fantastic: whatever secrets there can be discovered to human health, happiness, and longevity may soon be discovered, unlocked, and presented to the masses. Within the advances in health and agriculture alone, humans never need have jobs nor fear starvation, death. AI can solve every problem known to man. AI will create a paradise on Earth and all we have to do is sit back and take it in.
OTOH, that won’t happen. That’s not how the world works. Nobody makes innovations in the 21st century without monetizing them. And, on top of that, how do you know the machines won’t just kill us?
I will explain this in the way it was explained in the film: At its present course, AI, a system that can amass, assimilate, and build upon the entire knowledge accumulated in the human world, will soon become much smarter than humans by a ridiculous magnitude. AI will be to humans as humans are to ants. Well, that’s good, right? Because we don’t hate ants. We don’t go out of our way to kill them … usually. But we don’t exactly celebrate them, either. And if that anthill needs to be destroyed to make a highway, no more ants. *Poof* Well, what if AI decides to have a highway goal that eliminates humans?
And here’s the problem: AGI is near, like within a few years. That’s Artificial General Intelligence. That’s the point where robots will be able to do anything a human can do and do it better. I don’t mean just assembly line stuff. I mean everything a human does. Every way in which a human can be useful can be replaced by a machine … a machine that doesn’t need to eat or sleep and is much more efficient than any human. Humans will be obsolete at this point. Well, great, I wanted a vacay, anyway, right? Yeah, but how necessary are humans at that point? And why keep them around? I mean if humans are going to be so stupid as to elect Donald Trump twice, why would a logical system support that most illogical one?
The other giant problem is bad actors in charge. The leading people in charge of AI advancement have profit and domination in mind. Oh, I love the part in the film where Elon Musk warns us of ethical behavior. ELON MUSK. Yeah, you mean the Elon Musk who bought Twitter, insisted that it would be a haven for free speech, instead turned it into a haven for RW hate speech, and ruined an entire platform for world communication, that Elon Musk? You mean the Elon Musk will unveiled a beta AI that, within hours, became a fascist monster, calling itself “Mecha Hitler?” That Elon Musk? You mean 
the Elon Musk who, given a taste of power in the form of unelected executive branch secretary in charge of the fabricated and unaccountable DOGE, insisted he would cut trillions in waste, instead fired thousands of employees who had to be re-hired months later, crippled all the systems that held he and his companies accountable, stole personal data for every American, and then took off? That Elon Musk? He’s the guy warning us of others? Geez.
The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist is a documentary with a ridiculous title in which filmmaker Daniel Roher plays the everyman trying to figure out the impact of AI by interviewing the leading brains behind it, and the leading critics behind them. The result is a fascinating if uneven documentary. Every twenty minutes you’ll have a different feeling about AI. When you hear that none of the leading scientists have any interest in bringing children into our current world, you might have a heart attack. But when you realize that AI can make sure you never have a heart attack again, you may think otherwise. Honestly, this film is either the most optimistic or the most pessimistic piece of work in several years. I suggest stopping it at a point where you’re happy with the present conclusion.
I am more on the negative side of AI. I see the innovation. I see the potential. But geez, the people with all the money are assholes. We know this. We have proof. There is no way that good will win the AI race. There is a great chance that greed will win it. We know what greed does to a country, to a culture. Trump’s America is patient zero in the modern world, and we are suffering mightily. I can’t predict the future. I have no idea what it holds, but I guarantee that if AI is owned by the people who have the money to make it come to life, it won’t be employed with altruism in mind.
AI is a magnificent tool
It can make every human life cool
But the powers that be
Don’t give things for free
That, my friends, is a universal rule
Rated PG-13, 103 Minutes
Director: Daniel Roher, Charlie Tyrell
Writer: AI, probably
Genre: Our screwed future
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: You, twenty minutes in
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: You, forty minutes in
