The AI apocalypse is trending. Warnings are flying that continuing to develop AI technology at the current pace will almost certainly lead to a catastrophe for humankind.
Humans like their disasters to be big, decisive and cinematic. The most famous depiction of society brought to an end by AI is probably James Cameron’s Terminator franchise, and specifically the scene from Terminator 2: Judgment Day in which a playground is engulfed in flames and the world reduced to ash by a robot-initiated nuclear attack.
Instantaneous destruction is a convenient metaphor, but in the real world existential threats are usually incremental. Disasters attributed to climate change continue to happen, one by one. The pattern is clear. But because catastrophes are not happening to everyone everywhere all at once, there are still those who insist that the various fires, floods and droughts are just a series of unrelated events.
