Forget Matrix and Terminator: AI will just be the same old remote control

AI won't destroy us: it will serve the same old masters

The image of robot dogs replacing real dogs in the hills sounds like a B-movie script, but it captures the panic surrounding artificial intelligence. The Matrix and Terminator remain the digital doomsday prophecies of choice, even though reality is moving along less spectacular paths. When people talk about complete replacement, there's no need to imagine exoskeletons: just look at who sets the rules of the game.

AI has no tribe, it has an owner

Some argue that AI won't destroy us, but will simply put the same old control in new hands. The argument is blunt: algorithms have no loyalty, they have an owner. Against those who see technological pogre as an unstoppable apocalypse, others point out that the history of technology is the history of the same elites swapping tools. Digital money didn't get rid of bankers, it just gave them a new interface.

The danger of seeing signals where there is only noise

The other side of the coin is the mystical temptation. Attributing divine or conspiratorial powers to AI is usually a mental shortcut: apophenia, that tendency to find patterns where none exist, turns a song generated by an algorithm into a message from beyond. The result is smoke that keeps you from seeing what's right in front of you. The issue isn't how smart machines are, but who programs them and why.

And meanwhile, the verdict that unsettles comes wrapped in resignation: AI will change 99% of society, but the masters will remain the same. If the forecast is right, the question of whether it destroys or saves us becomes almost irrelevant. Perhaps the real antiestéticar isn't the machine, but the fact that we already know who will be holding the remote control.