Fear is Useful: AI and Robotics as a Threat to Our Security

Many people today fail to grasp the risks that come with the rapid advancement of AI and robotics. It is time to ask the hard questions: What scenarios await us in the future? How do we prepare for them, and how should we respond?

The first step in addressing any potential problem is acknowledging it. So I ask: what if physical control—or even elimination—carried out by AI-powered robots stops being just a sci-fi concept?

I wish I could dismiss this question as absurd and irrelevant, but I know that ignoring it or downplaying its significance won’t protect us from future dangers or the loss of personal freedom.

We already have systems where AI assists in managing drones, military operations, and real-time behavioral analysis. But what if, tomorrow, a drone is hovering outside your balcony? It won’t have moral dilemmas, won’t feel remorse, and won’t question an order. And that’s assuming it even needs an order at all. If such technology falls into the wrong hands, who will stop it? Do we truly believe that our law enforcement agencies will be able to protect us from swarms of small, autonomous flying objects when the development and production of such technology are becoming cheaper and increasingly accessible? Today, terrorists must risk their freedom and lives. Technology can make terrorism anonymous, pushing it into an entirely new dimension.

The next step is a world where these systems and machines make decisions on their own. What if someone makes a programming mistake? What if we can no longer turn these systems off?

The risks do not end with conventional weapons as we know them today. Technological advancements will likely introduce threats to our freedom and security in nearly invisible ways. Imagine microscopic robots or systems capable of developing deadly viruses.

Do we really know what awaits us? We don’t. Do we know what the world will look like in 5, 10, or 20 years? We don’t. What we do see is a world changing at an unprecedented pace, where uncertainty has become the dominant theme of the near future. Isn’t that reason enough to approach this with greater caution?

You might say I’m being too pessimistic, that I’m exaggerating, that I’m fearmongering.

Fear is useful.