AI as a Rorschach Test

Is AI really going to destroy the world? How?

Anybody who would have gazed up at clouds in the sky knows that our brains are always ready to find patterns where none exist. Often what we see is what we hope to see.

With this insight, Hermann Rorschach a Swiss psychiatrist, who died at the age of 37 due to a burst appendix, created an inkblot test. The premise was simple - He would drop some ink on a piece of paper and fold the paper onto itself. This random pattern would be shown to a person and they would be asked to guess what they are looking at.

Source: Wikipedia

It is just a blot of ink but people would find patterns in it. Some would see a butterfly or a moth or something else.

How a person interpreted this card, gave an insight into that person’s state of mind.

There are other variants of this game as well.

When you think “Hammer” - Do you think “make” or “break”?

Much like the Hammer, AI or what the hell ever they are selling to you as AI, is merely a tool. Whether you see it as a tool to make the world or break the world probably tells us more about you than about the tool itself.