As an actor myself (very famous), I’m unnerved by the introduction of Tilly Norwood, the AI “actress” attracting attention for its lifelike “performance” in several clips posted online by Particle 6, the British company responsible for creating it. Tilly has, apparently, received offers of representation from Hollywood talent agencies. Ironically, if she does end up signing with one of the big agencies, she almost certainly won’t be the fakest starlet on their roster.
Snarky jokes aside, we’re fast approaching the time when AI performances will be indistinguishable from the real thing, which raises the question: If we can get AI to star in movies, what other jobs can it do? Is there another position that requires Tilly’s particular set of skills? She is accommodating, ideologically flexible and almost lifelike—so what about President of the United States? Maybe Americans would finally vote for a female president if she were girl-next-door cute-but, you know, not an actual human woman?
I’m certainly not the first person to suggest that AI might one day rule a nation, if not the entire planet. The trope is as old as civilization itself. The difference now, though, is that we have the technological tools to create our own gods. And, I’ll be honest, Tilly is a lot better-looking than some old dude with a beard.
They’re already trying out something similar in Albania, which depending on what day you ask, is one of those countries whose mysterious wars Trump claims to have solved. The Eastern European nation recently appointed Diella, a new AI-generated Minister of Public Procurement, as a salve against its historic problem with governmental corruption. Presumably, the thinking goes that AI wouldn’t steal. Which is probably true when it comes to paperclips, but just because AI doesn’t want your money or office supplies doesn’t mean it isn’t coming for your VERY SOUL!!!
To reiterate, I’m an actor, which means I’m, shall we say… dumb. So I don’t know whether or not appointing computer programs to ministerial positions is a good idea or not, but some Albanians are warning that computer programs face no accountability for their actions. I suppose that would be a more compelling argument if I didn’t know what I did to my Angry Birds app when it got a little handsy.
Diella, of course, is an experiment which will be monitored by humans; the Albanian government promises its work will be fully transparent. And we know how trustworthy governments are when they pre-emptively tell us everything’s on the up-and-up.
All of that aside, is there an argument to be made for President Tilly? Granted, presidents are supposed to be at least 35 years old and American, but the current administration has taught us that the Constitution is no more than a list of suggestions.
And there are certain, obvious advantages to an AI president. First, if we don’t have a First Family, we don’t need a White House. We can sell off that drafty old mansion to some billionaire and use the proceeds to fund the data center required to run our dewy-eyed leader.
Second, AI will never throw up on the Japanese prime minister’s lap. George H.W. Bush did that in 1992. It will never get stuck in the bathtub, an embarrassment that reportedly befell William Howard Taft. Nor will it ever wear a tan suit, which resulted in President Barack Obama’s impeachment, removal from office and imprisonment at Ft. Leavenworth, where he still currently resides.
Third, now that Congress has essentially abdicated its powers to the president, our legislative branch will have even less to do than they do now. Which means more time for them to fund-raise, trade stocks based on inside information and avoid town halls. An AI president would give congresspeople all the cover they ever wanted to complain about everything while doing nothing.
And it’s not like we would be stuck with President Tilly our whole lives. We could have multiple AIs run against each other. Tilly could run against Grok and they could have a debate over whether or not the Holocaust happened. Fun! Maybe somewhere down the line, Tilly could even run against an AI Trump! Or would an AI Trump ban elections?
Or Tilly could run against Tron. Just because Tron is fictional shouldn’t matter. In a nation where the boundaries between truth and lies have blurred so much as to become indistinguishable, why not pit one fictional character against another for the privilege of being able to launch very real nukes?
It was only a few years ago that I remember an AI clip of Will Smith eating spaghetti floating around the Internet. Smith’s arms were wrong, his hands were a mess; the whole thing looked very unnatural and vaguely upsetting—but still revolutionary.
At the time, I remember somebody showing me the clip and saying that what we were watching was the worst AI was ever going to look. What we were watching, they noted, was only going to get better and better with time. And it has. Hollywood saw this one coming—one of the reasons actors’ unions went on strike a couple years ago was to ensure that AI creations would not be allowed to replace humans. It was a naïve position to take then and it’s appearing increasingly naïve now. AI actors are coming. So are AI lawyers. AI surgeons. Could an AI president really be that far behind?
Humans are messy, fallible creatures who sometimes do inexplicable things, like paint themselves orange. We make poor choices for bad reasons. We struggle with logic. We get tired. We grow old. Maybe we’d be better off if we weren’t in charge of our own affairs. Maybe it’s time to let AI take the wheel. Considering our human operators are currently in the process of driving the nation off a cliff, could President Tilly do much worse?
The post Opinion: My Fellow Americans, It’s Time to Elect an AI President appeared first on The Daily Beast.
