Sometimes, science is a very dangerous tool!

Artificial Intelligence was a 2001 science fiction film, directed, co-written and produced by the one and only Steven Spielberg. It was set sometime in the future and it tells the story of David, a child-like android programmed with the unique ability to love.

During a recent edition of ‘Pjazza’ on TVM, the subject of artificial intelligence was brought up first by the mayor of Valletta and then by former Prime Minister and President Eddie Fenech Adami.

Not knowing much about the subject, undoubtedly spectators watching television at home had various questions to ask but I would like to ask only one since the name of a dead person by the name of Michael Jackson was brought up on the show.

What if a dead person were programmed to communicate with a living person? Wouldn’t it have serious repercussions on the mind of the latter? Always assuming that with modern technology, the photograph of a deceased person could somehow find its way onto the internet and actually “speak” to some poor grief-stricken soul who has just lost her husband, daughter or son, I wonder if this artificial intelligence programme couldn’t somehow be termed as being extremely dangerous to some people.

True, it has its good points. For some old lady or lonely person living alone, it could be a godsend, but for others who are vulnerable because of the loss of a loved one and seriously contemplate long conversations with him or her, it would be nothing but something negative which distorts the mind. Can the subject of ‘artificial intelligence’ be explained in further detail to people because sometimes, although we harp on and on about progress, the most indecent thing about progress, funnily enough, is nothing but regress. As stated at the beginning of my letter, sometimes science, or the exploitation of science, is a very dangerous thing.

Valerie Borg

Valletta