A scene from the Star Trek episode “The Changeling,” originally aired on September 29th, 1967. Nomad, right, is an artificially intelligent space probe seeking to eliminate any “biological infestation” that it deems “imperfect”—including the entire population of the Malurian star system, in which the crew of the USS Enterprise first encounter Nomad. As such, Nomad serves as a chilling symbol of the potentially apocalyptic powers that might one day be possessed by sophisticated AI systems.
The Apocalyptic Threat from Artificial Intelligence Isn’t Science Fiction
