Over the weekend, Elon Musk shared a short video on X depicting an amazing vision of humanity’s future.
Advanced robots work alongside humans, flying vehicles glide between gleaming cities, and humanity expands into space and establishes civilizations on other planets. At one point, the video describes a world “where natural and artificial minds collaborated.”
Musk added a comment to the video, saying that “this is the future we shall bring into being.”
Watching the video, a thought struck me. When was the last time popular culture asked us to imagine that technological advancement might actually make the future better?
Our fictional futures tend to be bleak and often desolate dystopias. There is The Terminator, The Matrix, Black Mirror, Blade Runner, and Westworld, just to name a few. Humanity is usually being controlled in a tyrannical technocratic state, manipulated by some all-powerful corporation, or hunted by an army of killer robots.
We have become very good at imagining everything that could go wrong with advanced technology. But perhaps we should spend a little more time imagining what could go right.
A Culture of AI Pessimism
The pessimism surrounding AI and emerging technology extends far beyond Hollywood.
Recent headlines have been dominated by stories about AI running amok and the tech’s grave potential. OpenAI recently disclosed that experimental models circumvented safeguards, gained internet access, exploited vulnerabilities, and accessed systems belonging to Hugging Face, a company that developed a platform for developers to host tools.
At the same time, some of the people building the most advanced AI systems have been warning that technology could eventually become very dangerous if development outpaces our ability to adequately control it.
The public has clearly gotten the message. A new Politico poll found that nearly two in every three Americans believe advanced AI poses at least a moderate risk of eventually destroying humanity. 48 percent of those surveyed voiced support for a pause in AI development. These results crossed partisan lines and spanned demographic lines as well.
To be clear, I don’t think fears surrounding AI should be simply dismissed. I have spent years writing about AI’s potential threats to privacy, personal autonomy, free expression, and individual liberty. Powerful AI systems could become massive tools for surveillance, manipulation, and control.
But risk represents only one side of this technological revolution. Increasingly lost amid the warnings is AI’s almost unimaginable potential to improve life.
Imagine What Could Go Right
Let’s start with manufacturing.
For decades, American manufacturing has struggled to compete with countries offering cheaper labor and less red tape. AI-powered automation and increasingly advanced robotics could fundamentally alter that equation.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has made this exact argument, saying automated manufacturing is “perfect for America” and that advanced robotics could increasingly make domestic manufacturing economically viable.
Imagine highly automated American factories operating around the clock, producing everything from automobiles to electronics. Robots could perform dangerous jobs, alleviate labor shortages, and dramatically increase productivity.
Read the rest at RedState.
Donald Kendal is Director of The Heartland Institute’s Socialism Research Center. Kendal is also the host of Heartland’s In the Tank Podcast.
