Add a Comment   Back to OJB's Blog Search Page

Our AI Overlords

Entry 2397, on 2025-05-26 at 16:32:36 (Rating 2, Computers)

To paraphrase a famous line from the Simpsons: "well, it looks like they are now in charge, and I for one welcome our new AI overlords". In the Simpsons it was some mutant space ants or something similar which the news reader thinks will take over the world, not AI, but you get the idea.

Whenever I am asked what the next big thing in computers will be I answer, without hesitation, artificial intelligence. I know some people are skeptical or even dismissive about AI, but they are usually the people who haven't experienced what it can do, although there are knowledgeable people who also think both the risks and benefits have been exaggerated.

The latest development which impressed me is Google's Veo 3, which creates movies with full sound, including speech, from simple English text prompts. It's only available at this stage to people who pay a subscription, so I couldn't test it directly, but other people have.

Here is an example prompt to generate a single scene: "A lone survivor stands on a rusty bridge, looking at a shattered city. His flannel shirt is torn, jacket scuffed, boots thick with mud. His beard is rough and his eyes look worn out. Grey ash drifts through the air. He whispers, 'This was home.' The camera eases back, widening the view of the empty skyline behind him". The movie scene created by that was pretty authentic. Maybe an expert could tell it was AI generated, but I didn't see anything obvious.

A while back I predicted that Hollywood is history, because people will be able to create custom movies simply. Just about every movie I see (which, to be fair, isn't many because very few are worth watching) doesn't really work the way I would like. The plots are too simple, the characters are stereotypes, the outcomes are too predictable. I would prefer to create my own movie, or maybe swap creations with friends. At the very least, this could allow talented people to create cool movies cheaply (basically for free compared with current efforts), and without big production companies, then make them available to others.

How is that different than movies being created by the big companies we have today? Well, it's very similar to how news and commentary have become "democratised". Now I get more news from non-traditional media than the mainstream. I can do this because blogs and podcasts are a great leveller, which bypass the old companies who have become somewhat corrupted.

Recently, BBC journalists said they are worried that AI will destroy journalism, and that it has a lot of bias. Yes, I know, the BBC, criticising AI for having bias is the ultimate hypocrisy! But yes, maybe it will, just like cars destroyed horse-drawn carriages, electricity destroyed gas lighting, and computers destroyed typewriters. Destroying something we no longer need isn't necessarily a bad thing.

And I should add here that movies and news are just the beginning. Already AI is really good at programming, so I am affected too. Luckily, I lived through the "golden age of programming" but the future for that profession doesn't look good, just like it looks bad for just about every profession.

A friend of mine, who is a computer scientist, disagreed with me over my last post. He saw AI as just a mechanistic system, incapable of anything truly novel, but I think he underestimated it.

Here's part of a recent article related to this: "In a recent experiment, researchers let large language models communicate freely ... Over time, the AIs developed shared naming systems, adopted group biases, and even started shaping one another's behavior. In some cases, a small group managed to steer the direction of a much larger one. What's fascinating is that none of this was programmed. These behaviours emerged naturally through their conversations. This kind of emergent behavior shows that AI models aren't just doing their own thing in isolation. When they work together, they begin to form shared understandings, adjust to each other, and create entirely new patterns of thinking."

As I said in the previous post, no one (not even the people who created the system) quite knows how this happens, so it seems to me that a simple programmed behaviour is not what we are seeing here.

I use AI in much simpler ways every day: I ask it to create a summary of a topic, use it for search, and have it create automated replies to texts. Of course, I don't fully trust it and I fact check those summaries, use alternative searches for controversial subjects, and read the generated messages before I send them, but I rarely find any problems.

I don't think AI is quite there yet, but it will be. At the current rate of progress, in about a year, I expect to be able to create my own movie which is as good as anything from Hollywood - and yeah, I know, that's not a very high standard! It will take a while to create, but there will be communities on-line swapping pre-made scenes, prompts to create scenes, and other hints and tips, just like there is for everything else already.

Some say the future looks bleak, but I for one welcome our AI overlords!

Comment 1 (8225) by EK on 2025-05-26 at 20:04:59:

Interesting. Hope AI can be more useful than creating movies. As far as journalism and news information are concerned that space needs to be watched very carefully. Huge potential for mischief.

Comment 2 (8226) by OJB on 2025-05-26 at 20:43:41:

Well, sure, it can be used for a lot more than creating movies, but that was just the latest use I saw which impressed me. And absolutely, there is massive potential for problems if or when it is misused. The more powerful the technology is, the more harm it can do, I guess.

You can leave comments about this entry using this form.

Enter your name (optional):
Enter your email address (optional):
Enter the number shown here:
Enter the comment:

To add a comment: enter a name and email (optional), type the number shown, enter a comment, click Add.
Note that you can leave the name blank if you want to remain anonymous.
Enter your email address to receive notifications of replies and updates to this entry.
The comment should appear immediately because the authorisation system is currently inactive.