Minority report
predictionsof the future is, apparently, Tech news and not the stuff of a magazine fluff-piece.
The BBC News droid doesn't just report the news, it also pulls together future-gazing speculative fluff-pieces of the kind normally found within the website's magazine-type sections; an example of AI in action, perhaps. Ironically enough, in this case the droid's created an article on the threats that AI may pose to humanity: AI warning us of AI, no less.
An article exploring sci-fi films' predictions of AI threats would fit well enough within BBC Future or BBC Culture, but could just as easily find its way into BBC Whateverthehell. This one, however, is reported as news. (confused)
The future is now
The droid cites Disney Pixar's WALL•E as predicting enfeeblement
, when humans become totally dependent on machines:
If you need a reminder, humans in that movie were happy animals who did no work and could barely stand on their own. Robots tended to everything for them.
But the enfeeblement of humanity by machines foreseen by WALL•E in 2008 has already begun. While AI enfeebled their minds, hoverchairs enfeebled their bodies. And I see that now; great lumps of fat riding e-scooters and e-motorcycles, when they'd be better off walking or cycling.
Yesteryear's future is here today.
