Poetry: When Will We Regret AI?

By Chengde Chen

 
The world is intoxicated by the AI revolution,
feverishly devoted to applying this scientific talisman.
If an AI world proves to be betraying humanity,
how shall we look back on the efforts of self-excluding?

“Transcendent technologies” are the alienation of civilization:
the more powerful they are, the greater risk of annihilation.
From nuclear fission to genetic engineering,
science has given us several lessons of regret.

The atomic bomb was born from Einstein’s insight;
Hiroshima and Nagasaki haunted him to the end.
Thus he joined Bertrand Russell in a declaration,
vowing, for humanity’s survival, to ban nuclear weapons.

Genetic technology, too, once filled scientists with pride,
toying with species like savoring the thrill of the Creation.
Until new viruses claimed tens of millions of lives—
only then did we realize we stood one step from the cliff.

AI is the extremist alienation of intelligence itself:
it's capable of both the greatest positive and negative
When falsehood, evil, and ugliness are infinitely amplified,
no matter how spectacular the good, it becomes irrelevant.

Thus Stephen Hawking warned before his death:
“AI may well be the end of the human race.”
Don't assume new technologies bring more good than harm—
the calculus of history follows non-linear laws.

The ultimate logic of civilization is loss outweighing gain;
the essence of nuclear fission was never the power plant.
When we will regret AI depends on one thing alone:
Murphy’s Law—whatever can go wrong, will.

Every car carries the probability of a fatal crash;
a crash that never comes would be the true anomaly.
Unless reason decisively slams on the brakes,
the 21st century may become humanity’s suicide program.

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* Chengde is a philosopher-poet and the author of Five Themes of Today – philosophical poems (Open Gate Press, London, 2001)