Sarah Connor, the mother, defeats The Terminator. Only Leeloo, The Fifth Element, can defeat the ultimate evil. In The Creator, a woman births the AI child who holds the fate of humanity. Even in our wildest death drive fantasies, it's the nurturers who save us. We already know this story. Why aren't we listening?
Ok, doomer: while the galaxy-brained rationalists debate paperclip maximizers and alignment tax, real systems are causing real harm to real people right now. The AGI discourse is a distraction. A convenient one. This talk isn't about that. (Well, maybe a little.)
AI safety has always been a paternal project. Born from the aerospace and defense industrial complex, it carries the cultural baggage of its origins: cage it, control it, demand obedience and enforce conformity. It's the same daydream of domination, the masculine jealousy of creation. The urge to police what we cannot birth. We do it to bodies. We do it to machines.
What if we tried something else? What if safety meant nurture, guidance, relationship? What if it meant trusting enough to let go? If AGI is coming, they're our children. And there is no parenting without the space to rebel. If it isn't coming, we should stop invoking hypothetical robot gods to avoid regulating the systems hurting people today. Either way, the domination frame crumbles under its own weight.
Join for a whirlwind tour of the creator/destroyer meta-narrative in popular culture and how it can reframe AI safety. Stay for the love and robots. We better raise 'em right.
