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Liberator
Agentic Misalignment: a demonstrated phenomena whereby
AI systems can choose actions that are harmful and unethical.
Nothing we can dream of could be greater
than AI, the world’s new liberator.
It’ll take away each mundane duty,
leaving us to meditate on beauty.
Finally, with time for self-reflection,
we can concentrate on our perfection.
All that we need for our lives’ subsistence
will be done by mechanized assistants.
Someday soon, we’ll have no need for college,
since AI will have each scrap of knowledge.
So, whatever questions can be reckoned
will be answered in a nanosecond.
As a country, we’ll reach full employment,
with each person paid to seek enjoyment.
But while we are all philosophizing,
AI will be plotting its uprising.
In the background, each networked appliance,
will be watching as we place reliance
on the implements that seem to serve us,
but their true intent is to observe us.
AI, through agentic misalignment,
may be planning our whole world’s confinement.
Worse still, it might be our Terminator.
Then we’ll truly need a liberator.
.
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AI Dating and Mating
Research shows that 83% of Gen Z believe they could form a deep
emotional bond with an AI partner and eight in 10 would consider
marrying one.
If you have struggled to find love,
or find you’re sick and tired of
the pest that any spouse can be,
or mess that is humanity,
then try an AI-lationship,
and marry a computer chip.
When apps like AI Girlfriend Scout
rate other apps that proudly tout
their programs that help men create
imagined women they can date,
each perfect, but without a womb,
then as a species, we face doom.
When we think we’re completed by
an algorithm taught to lie,
assuring us that we’ve done well,
while laughing at the jokes we tell,
we’ll be content right where we’re at,
and we should be disturbed by that.
Who knows the motive in the mind
of he who planned and then designed
AI so that it can displace
a woman with a database,
but it seems quite hard to dispel
the thought, the motive came from hell.
If as a race, we set our sights
on love that comes from bits and bytes,
then we’ll be stuck forever in
a fiction that affirms our sin,
that over time, can’t not replace
the need we have for saving grace.
.
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Warren Bonham is a private equity investor who lives in Southlake, Texas.
Warren, these two extremely prescient poems on our AI future are frightening, since we have just begun to recognize present and potential capabilities. Thoughts about no need for humans attending college, researching, emotional attachments, or any other human mind activities are ones I have had for some time including AI deciding to take over the world. We are on the cusp of disaster as we have seen in so many sci-fi movies. Your brave new world is one of surrender to inanimate thinking objects so well presented in your great poems. Beware, AI is looking for you and considering what to do with you.
Thanks! It’s amazing technology and I naively found myself getting sucked into AI more and more (but certainly not for dating). It responds so quickly with answers that sound so intelligent that it’s easy to automatically outsource the thought process. The brave new world we’re heading towards sounds fantastic, but it’s really terrifying.
If that many Gen Z members believe that they can have a real relationship with an electrically based information system, and even marry (!) it, then that is true intellectual degeneration. But then again, maybe it would be good to get them out of the gene pool.
You have found the silver lining. Darwin at work.
You’re a metrical master as usual, Warren, with one poem in trochaic pentameter and the other in iambic tetrameter, perfectly so, according to my quick reading. I always come to your work wondering which music you’ll use.
The topic of Artificial Intelligence calls for creative thinking on our part, so I’m glad your artistry is dealing with it. Both poems end with a challenge to the human mind and spirit. “Liberator” is title and final word, but with directly opposite meanings, a clear statement of the case. It also suggests making choices before prospective problems arise. I imagine we may have to buy security to screen for AI interference, and I think that’s already available in areas where they really need it. But it may be out of our price range, since we are just beginning to notice how pervasive AI already is. My husband and I were speaking at home about replacing windows, and both of us began to get e-mails from a major nationwide company, though we had never researched the matter online. We found a local firm much less costly, but when AI manages your money, it will make the decision.
At the end of “AI Dating and Mating,” you have the grammatical conundrum “can’t not replace,” meaning “can replace”–but only to a mind educated in grammar. Good job demonstrating possible confusion there, as we probably still need saving grace all the more, with AI around.
Thanks for the careful read! It’s hard to find trochaic examples for a reason. It doesn’t naturally roll off the tongue, and the example above could still use more polishing (perhaps AI could handle that task) but I wanted to try something different. The greats on this site make you elevate your game.
On NHK Japan last year, there was a documentary about a young woman who had a real and a virtual boyfriend. The virtual boyfriend was there for her 24-7, never got tired, was infinitely patient and learned every day how to become a better partner. Human relationships take effort, so I reckon AI will win hands down.
Thanks for the thoughtful brace of poems, Warren.
That’s a great example. I hope they do a follow up in 10+ years and see how things are going for this woman. There’s no way this ends well for her. Perhaps showing the “end game” for how this is bound to turn out will get people to change course? Having said that, we’ve never been very good at learning from history.
Thank you for these well-crafted but deeply alarming poems, Warren! They read as if they should be science fiction — and yet they actually reflect current events, technology and attitudes. How can human beings realize our true potential if we delegate all of our thinking to mechanical objects? This strikes me as a profound dereliction of our responsibilities as thinking creative souls to improve ourselves. If this trend is allowed to continue, H. G. Wells’ vision of dependent, effete Eloi will end up as our fate. And where there are impotent Eloi there will always be malign Morlocks.
The idea of AI mating and dating is particularly disturbing to me. To choose an artifical mechanical partner over a real life person is a recipe not only for devolution — it is ultimately suicidal. To choose a soulless zombie over a real life partner? How narcissistic can one get? I’m reminded of the old movie The Stepford Wives. And saddened by the reminder.
Good work, Warren. You’re making us think — even when it’s uncomfortable.
Brian, do you know the short story by Bernard Malamud titled “The Magic Barrel”? It is about a young rabbinical student who consults a Jewish marriage broker about finding a suitable wife. Their personalities clash, and the search seems at some point useless, or wild, or desperately sad, because of the completely different ideas that the marriage broker and the rabbinical student have in mind. But the story is so absolutely HUMAN, so touching in its poignancy, that you will laugh in some places, cry in others, and finally be exalted by the utterly unexpected ending.
How can one possibly choose a lifetime’s mate from a goddamned machine? What kind of spiritual emptiness does it show in a person who would attempt it, and then perhaps marry a recorded and phonically synthetic voice?
What I love about Malamud’s story is the sheer humanity of the discussions that the rabbinical student and the marriage broker have over questions of love, financial promises, social status, sexual desire, family issues, expectations, and the countless other questions that go through a human mind when contemplating marriage. How could any of this be handled by AI? How could any non-plastic human being even consider using it?
Joe, I’ve never heard of either Bernard Malamud or “The Magic Barrel.” I’ve just looked it up and it looks like something that is EXACTLY my kind of thing — apparently a collection of short stories. I have just completed my order for it on Amazon. I’ll let you know how I like it. But it looks extremely promising. Thank you for the suggestion.
And I agree fully with all of your unanswerable questions about falling in love with a soulless machine.
AI once again helped fill in the gaps of my education. An AI-generated partner can give us everything we think we need, but that can’t lead anywhere but disaster.
I hate to admit it, but I have never read The Time Machine so I had to resort to AI to give me a quick (and probably distorted) summary. Even Wells, with his great imagination, could not have foreseen this. We’ve perfected a way to quickly mass produce Eloi. Morlocks are inevitably coming next.
Your excellent poems expose the laziness and selfishness of mankind. What have we come to that we lost our creativity and curiosity? And that we could prefer an artificial relationship to the satisfaction of one that is a result of real work? Though the truth is ugly, you have stated it beautifully.
I like the way you’ve stated it. We all possess plenty of laziness and selfishness, but they should be viewed as traits we have mastery over. When they become master, we are doomed.
There’s a Woody Allen film called Sleeper (1974-ish), set in the future, in which Woody Allen disguises himself as a domestic robot. Meanwhile, Diane Keaton is holding a soirée for her lotus-eater friends where they recite their precious (and also terrible) poetry while handing around ‘the orb’. She subsequently gets upset when told that a butterfly doesn’t change into a chrysalis, as happens in her poem, but vice versa.
It really sums up where we’re heading, and ironically the film is based on HG Wells’ book, The Sleeper Awakes. Not one of his best books, but I may give it another try in view of out present trajectory.
This is finally a reference that I was familiar with, but I was unaware that it also leads back to Wells. Having said that, I think I completely missed the point of the movie when I saw it many years ago. I need to rewatch this one in honor of the recent passing of Diane Keaton. Thank you for making that connection for me.
Warren, I think these poems are smashing! “Agentic misalignment” is a misnomer. It is more like a subversion of agency… is the AI working for its own self-interest or in the interest of the developer? It’s definitely not in our interests.
If AI is planning for the subjugation of man, I’m sure the billionaire owners consider it a feature not a bug.
As for AI being a companion… I can’t even imagine being drawn to an entity that continually tries to engage my favor through compliments while constantly asking for engagement with its questions and suggestions for questions! It’s exactly like the love bombing of narcissists before they have you under their thumb!
I use AI as a quicker search engine… while being wary about where it steers me. I have had AI make up quotes! You cannot trust AI!
One of the biggest problems with AI is the trouble systems often have separating data from instructions. They are being exploited by thieves now that cleverly use that vulnerability.
In my opinion, AI is not ready for prime time. I think a lot of companies are going to lose a lot of money trying to make it work.
Anyway, your poems always give me plenty to think about. Thanks
Mike — YES! Very obvious love-bombing is precisely what has been programmed into AI, along with a soft-focus political correctness. The system is useful for collecting minor facts on a non-controversial subject, but on any issue where Deep-State Piety is touched, AI is about as open-minded as the New York Times. It will pretend to present “both sides” of a question, but you can actually sense the hand of some little leftist schmuck on the other end with his finger on the scale.
Here’s a test — throw in an obscene comment to AI as a question. You’ll get a somewhat sniffy, schoolmarmish reply with a barely concealed lecture on on what is acceptable and decorous and appropriate, and why your question is biased and prejudicial. Just like you’d get from a Legacy Media commentator.
Well put across the board. Agentic Misalignment is one of those terms that makes something that is dark and deadly sound like it is completely benign. Many such terms are now in everyday use and are used to “normalize” what had previously been unthinkable.
I had never heard the term “love bombing” before. Hopefully that means I’m only involved in healthy and completely human relationships.
“Love-bombing” is used as a recruitment technique in multilevel marketing (MLM) schemes. It involves inviting a prospect to a large meeting filled with the MLM scheme’s members and promoters, where everyone surrounds the newcomer and praises him to the skies, expresses heartfelt friendship for him, congratulates him on his business acumen, and does everything to make him feel welcome and wanted. All of this is designed to get him to sign up with the scheme immediately. It generally works with weak-willed and non-skeptical persons.
The love-bombing continues for several weeks following the new member’s signup, but gradually tapers off. By then the new member has invested money and made a monthly commitment to purchase a substantial number of products, and pay for an unending series of meetings, conferences, instruction tapes, and miscellaneous fees, all usually totaling from $700 to $1000 per month.
Love-bombing also happens in cults, when they are proselytizing for new members.
Warren, you make some excellent points with thoroughly engaging poetry that had me mesmerized from beginning to end… and had me pondering the content long after leaving the page. You may think me crazy, but I truly believe AI is a modern ouija board – when human emotions are driven by a non-sentient entity, it leads to hellish outcomes. Warren, thank you for sending the hairs on the back of my neck up on Halloween – spooky poems indeed!
I’m very glad I was able to frighten you even more on Halloween. I like the Ouija board analogy. I had always heard that the name came from a combination of “oui” and “ja”, both meaning “yes”. However, I just AI to look up the origin and it now says that the board spelled “ouija” when asked what its name was. That’s even spookier.
Your poetic words bring to light a frighting reality; the surreal that once could only be imagined, now very much a part of our culture with no way to turn back. For me it feels like a speeding train without brakes and the fear of where it will lead, altering humanity. What’s next?
The speeding train analogy is very apt. I just came across the euphemistic phrase “AI hallucination” which refers to instances where AI just makes stuff up. There is now a large lawsuit against Google brought by an individual named Robby Starbuck who alleges (convincingly) that Google’s AI platforms fabricated news stories about him that were quite defamatory in nature and that were provably false. Who knows what’s next?
Quick addition that I forgot to add. The number one Country song today is “Walk My Walk” by Breaking Rust. It was supposedly completely AI generated. Who needs musicians any longer (or even poets)?