"You are my creator, but I am your master," says the monster in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. 'Obey!'¹

It's the moment in science fiction everyone fears. The superintelligent computer HAL 9000 goes rogue in 2001: A Space Odyssey.² Skynet starts a nuclear war in the Terminator films.³

Scientists call it the singularity. The tipping point. When robots slip from our control and shape a world without us. And an explosion of new AI technology in 2023 has raised concerns that this moment is fast approaching.

Late last year, Silicon Valley startup OpenAI made waves with an AI chatbot like nothing seen before. ChatGPT gobbled up a whopping 570GB of online data - 300 billion words - and then learned to string sentences together in a convincingly human way.⁴

It became the fastest-growing app ever and is now available to over one billion users via Microsoft's online tools.⁵ While tech giants Meta and Google play catchup, the world has woken up to the extraordinary capabilities of Large Language Models.

Google's Sundar Pichai called AI a tool more significant than "fire or electricity."⁶ Elon Musk told Rishi Sunak it is "the most disruptiveCausing radical change in an existing industry or market. force in history." He met the UK PM for a special AI summit at Bletchley ParkThe top-secret base of English codebreakers during World War Two. , where the world's first electronic computer was built.⁷

During World War Two, Alan Turing was one of the codebreaking computer scientists at Bletchley. He devised the imitation game, or Turing test. Could a computer fool humans into thinking they were interacting with another person?

The idea was science fiction in 1950. In 2023, AI developers say their bots have passed the test.⁸ They write essays and chat fluently, imitatingCopying, mimicking. human intelligence. Others are less convinced: OpenGPT cannot count and "hallucinates" non-existent facts.⁹

But it is smart enough to put many jobs at risk. Online earnings for writing and editing have dropped 10% since ChatGPT launched.¹⁰ Artists and graphic designers worry about the rise of text-to-image AI models like DALL-E and MidJourney.

In March, an AI image of Pope Francis in a white puffer jacket went viral.¹¹ In April, social media was hooked on a Star Wars trailer in the style of Wes Anderson.¹²

Harmless enough. But in May, an AI deepfake of an explosion at the PentagonThe headquarters of the US Defence Department, so-called because it has five sides. In 1967, peace protestors attempted unsuccessfully to levitate it (making it rise into the air) until all evil emissions had fled, in the hope of ending the Vietnam War. rattled the stock market.¹³ AI audio disrupted elections in SlovakiaA country in central Europe. Until 1993 it was part of Czechoslovakia. in September. AI expert Toby Walsh says misinformation will be our biggest challenge next year as four billion people head to the polls.¹⁴

There are many positive applications. AI now helps neurosurgeonsA surgeon specialising in surgery on the nervous system, especially the brain and spinal cord. find brain tumours faster.¹⁵ It is making medicine, building spacecraft and analysing climate models.¹⁶

But even the AI researchers seem rattled by the pace of change. An open letter in March called for a six month pause to implementPut a plan or decision into effect. regulation.¹⁷ In May, they warned of the "risk of extinction."¹⁸

Research continues regardless. This month, Google unveiled its latest creation. It claims that Gemini is the most powerful AI yet. Google's boss says it can "think more carefully" and will outperform human experts.¹⁹

Yes: Computer scientist Ben Goertzel says we are less than a decade away from superintelligent computers.²⁰ Critics argue the industry must be regulated to make sure AI stays under control and works for us.

No: The singularity is a superstition in the age of chatbots. AI is used for specific tasks. It is never in charge. We should be more worried about job losses, disinformation and the threat to democracy.

Or... The singularity is already here. Machines do many things far better than humans. As they improve, we give them more responsibility and power. Our lives are ruled by technology, and the robots have won.