When it comes to the dangers of sentient machines, science fiction movies such as The Matrix and Terminator pretty much lay out the worst-case scenarios for humanity. So, when Keanu Reeves, who starred as the main character Neo in The Matrix movies, expresses his concern about real-life artificial intelligence (AI), well, you sit up and listen.
During an interview with Wired, while promoting the John Wick 4, Reeves revealed how he was worried about the evolution in AI with the new GPT Chat Bot – which studies data and enables users to have “conversations” with dead people such as William Shakespeare.
On top of the GPT Chat Bot, we have seen Deepfakes of actors and AI art bots creating work in the style of established humans. All of these developments don’t sit well with Reeves, who is all too familiar with the danger of machines (albeit fictional danger), especially with a society who has become used to surrounding technology.
“I was trying to explain the plot of The Matrix to this 15-year-old once, and that the character I played was really fighting for what was real. And this young person was just like, ‘Who cares if it’s real?'” Reeves explained.
“People are growing up with these tools: We’re listening to music already that’s made by AI in the style of Nirvana, there’s NFT digital art. It’s cool, like, ‘Look what the cute machines can make!'” Reeves continued. “But there’s a corporatocracy behind it that’s looking to control those things.”
“Culturally, socially, we’re gonna be confronted by the value of real, or the nonvalue. And then what’s going to be pushed on us? What’s going to be presented to us?”
Reeves went on to state that the metaverse are already “a system of control and manipulation. We’re on our knees looking at cave walls and seeing the projections, and we’re not having the chance to look behind us.” Sounds pretty familiar, right?