Artificial Intelligence and the Rise of the Bots
An autonomous, artificially intelligent entity could task itself with inciting hatred to millions, even without being designed for that purpose.
As bots become more advanced at propagating extremism, they will also lack the normal constraints that even the most radical humans accept, such as the need to maintain a reputation, attend to offline commitments, or keep some semblance of peace with friends and family. Heteromated terror thus reaffirms the age-old realization that machines can do many things better than humans—and in this case, even the act of turning people into monsters. Humans who are compelled to join a violent movement in the near future may do so unaware they have done so at the behest of artificial intelligence. Under this model, acts of terror will become little more than human events that complete a non-human network’s task cycle.
Nathan González Mendelejis is assistant professor of National Security Studies at the eSchool of Graduate Professional Military Education, U.S. Air Force, and a Security Fellow with Truman National Security Project. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the U.S. Air Force or Department of Defense.
Image: Reuters
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