Killer artificial intelligence returns in ‘Alien: Covenant’ – Observer-Reporter

LOS ANGELES Modern movie culture would have you believe artificial intelligence is out to kill us all.

In 2001: A Space Odyssey, Hal, the AI computer aboard a space flight to Jupiter, develops a mind of its own and turns against the crew. The Terminator makes his mission clear in the movies title. Ava, the pretty-faced android in Ex Machina, has a killer instinct. David, the pretty-faced android in Prometheus, also doesnt have the best intentions for human survival.

Prometheus director Ridley Scott, who further explores the cunning side of artificial intelligence in his new Alien: Covenant, says, If youre going to use something thats smarter than you are, thats when it starts to get dangerous.

Its been a running theme through Scotts three films set in the Alien universe, dating back to the 1979 original in which Sigourney Weaver battles not only an alien killing machine but also Ash, an android who views his human crewmates as expendable. Prometheus in 2012 introduced David, an earlier android version with a similar lack of scruples about protecting humanity.

Filmmakers have long projected that artificial intelligence could spell the end of humanity, and some top scientists and tech leaders including Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk share their concern.

Musk, an early investor in the development of AI, told Vanity Fair earlier this year that he worries the technology could ultimately produce something evil by accident, such as a fleet of artificial intelligence-enhanced robots capable of destroying mankind.

But astrophysicist, author and film fan Neil deGrasse Tyson said he believes theres nothing to worry about. Killer androids may make for fun film fodder, but he doesnt think theyre an imminent, or eventual, reality.

Im completely fearless of AI, Tyson said last week.

Tyson noted that human beings have been inventing machines to replace human labor since the days of the Industrial Revolution, and computers have succeeded in outsmarting people since before Watson beat Ken Jennings at Jeopardy!

In movies, artificially intelligent beings might look human, but most real-life robots dont, he said. The robots welding parts on automobile assembly lines look like machines, not mechanics.

The first thing we think of when we have a machine that has capacity is not to put it into something that looks human, Tyson said. Because the human form is not very good at anything, so why have it look human?

An exception would be sex robots, he said, adding rhetorically, Is this robot going to take over the world?

For Scott, the possibility of evil artificial intelligence comes back to the question of the creator: Who is doing the creating, and for what purpose?

Whoever the inventor is, hes going to want to go the whole nine yards, the filmmaker said. Hence you get the expression of the mad professor who makes a mistake in going too far where the alien is way smarter than he is or the monsters are way smarter than he is and thats where you get problems.

But we will definitely go there.... Because what its leading to is the question of creation. And creation, I dont care who you are, is on everyones mind.

Tyson is also fascinated with creation. His latest book, Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, is about the birth of the universe and carbon-based life.

Androids, though, are just completely pointless, he said. And they couldnt become self-aware without consciousness, something scientists have yet to fully grasp.

Youre saying were going to end up programming this into a machine and then its going to decide we shouldnt exist, when we dont even understand our own consciousness? I just dont see it, he said.

Besides, if somehow artificially intelligent androids do go rogue, Tyson has a solution.

This is America, he said. I can shoot the robot.

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Killer artificial intelligence returns in 'Alien: Covenant' - Observer-Reporter