Frankissstein: A Love Story

by Jeanette Winterson

He comes forward to the front of the platform, the toes of his boots right on the edge, and he says, The world I imagine, the world that AI will make possible, will not be a world of labels – and that includes binaries like male and female, black and white, rich and poor. There will not be a division between head and heart, between what I feel and what I think. The future will not be a version of Blade Runner, where replicants long to be named – like humans – and therefore to be known – like humans. What I am proposing is far bigger. As we develop true artificial intelligence, what are we doing? We are summoning a vision. (He steps back. Pause. Wait. Hold. Go.) Even if, even if the first superintelligence is the worst possible iteration of what you might call the white male autistic default programme, the first upgrade by the intelligence itself will begin to correct such errors. And why? Because we humans will only programme the future once. After that, the intelligence we create will manage itself.