Thijs Pepping

If you are looking for longer-term footing, this report puts you comfortably in your seat. Feel free to think of a timeframe of 50, 60, possibly even 100 years or more. Let’s take 2125 as a starting point.

The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) as ‘the’ new interface can be felt in many organisations. The use of AI for information gathering, also known as ‘prompting’ is becoming more commonly used. Prior knowledge is less important on the work floor as AI tirelessly provides relevant answers. In your organisation, you might see a discord between people who won’t have any of it yet, on one side, and those who fully embrace AI, on the other. With the latter not fully committing as necessary guidelines, or ‘guardrails’, are still in development.

The book by Mary Shelley "Frankenstein, or the modern Prometheus" has inspired many Hollywood scenarios. The fear that is addressed in the book can also be triggered when people are confronted with applications of artificial intelligence. The anatomy of this fear for the artificial, our digital look-alikes, is the starting point for this report. The four FrankensteinFactors we describe provide insight into the underlying question where this fear comes from. The uncanny feeling that robots and automata can raise has been explained by psychoanalysts. Classical psychiatry (such as Sigmund Freud and Ernst Jentsch) and the more modern existential variant (such as Irvin Yalom) both shine an interesting light here. Emotions are explosive material, they should not be ignored. Organizations aware of the FrankensteinFactors increase the likelihood of AI success. Advise from the report: Start the dialogue with the environment (customers and employees), full transparency concerning the functioning of AI-algorithms and make human values central to the AI plans. A recent European resolution and guidelines drawn up by science and industry (Asilomar principles) provide the concrete tools for dealing with this. The report outlines the state of affairs in the current debate on superintelligence (and superstupidity) and unfolds cultural and psychological relationships that explain the fear of AI.