There’s a familiar trope that tells us that Science Fiction shapes the future. And while there are things that have been talked about in Science Fiction that have turned into reality (rocket ships, VR, Video Recorders, the Internet…), there is a tonne of stuff that hasn’t (teleportation, time travel, hoverboards…).
But with the revelations over the last few days about OpenAI and Scarlett Johansson, I’ve been thinking that maybe there’s a core issue here, and that’s a distinct lack of imagination in the tech bro community.
I mean, a (in my view rather wonderful) film was made about a speech-interfaced artificial intelligence back in 2013. Roll forward 11 years, and the obvious voice to stick on the front of ChatGPT is that of the actress who starred in Spike Jonze’s Her.
“Hey Mom! We’ve made SciFi happen!” go the tech bros, conveniently missing the distinctly dystopian main message of the film.
This is technological cosplay, not innovation.
mmitII 