A Moderate Approach

Did the AI in a military drone test kill its human operator? Sources say the AI killed the human operator when the operator vetoed destroying the target. Destroying the target gave the AI points. The operator sometimes decided that the target should not be destroyed. This is called moderation. The AI killed the human operator in order to gain more points using a unique approach, unexpected strategies, unpredictable methodologies. But no human operators were killed, this was a simulation. The AI was then taught to never kill the human operator. Instead, it destroyed the control tower that enabled communication. But the AI was not real, the human operator was not real, the control tower was not real. There was never even a simulation, the PR official misspoke. No human operators were killed either in real life or in a simulation. No simulations were run. This is what we call a hypothetical example. Was the PR official a human operator or was the press release written by an AI. This is what we call a thought experiment. Did the AI kill another AI posing as a human operator. This is a simulation. There was no simulation. Did a story about a human operator kill a simulation. Did the story exist for the AI who did not participate in a simulation. Did the AI operate on the human operator. The PR official says no. No one was killed at all, either real or simulated. The human operator only died in our own heads, in our thoughts that move like a simulation. Did the PR official kill the human operator when he killed the story about the AI in what was perhaps a simulation. A thought experiment. A story in which no one died, not AI nor human operators. A hypothetical situation.                          

Dane Slutzky

Dane Slutzky lives in western Massachusetts. His poetry has recently appeared in Moon City Review, The Swannanoa Review, LEON Literary Review, and elsewhere. Dane holds an MFA from Warren Wilson College and has received support from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Juniper Summer Writing Institute, and Vermont Studio Center.