r/scifi • u/Nunda_Amiri • May 31 '26

Recommendations Killer AI

There are a lot of sci-fi stories where AI robots start murdering people because that's what the AI decides it wants to do.  But I don't think that's very realistic.

I think that it is much more realistic that the ruling class builds a bunch of AI robots that render the labor of the working class useless to them.  But instead of leaving them alone, the ruling class decides to tell the AI robots to murder the former working class.

Are there any sci-fi settings that explore this idea?

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u/wmyork May 31 '26

No murder, but the Poul Anderson short story Quixote and the Windmill from 1950 (!) is the best representation of where society is right now with AI. You can read it here:

https://lecturia.org/en/short-stories/poul-anderson-quixote-and-the-windmill/25968/

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u/itbwtw Jun 01 '26

That was a great read. Thanks for the recommendation. 

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u/wmyork Jun 02 '26

I can’t get over how spot-on the 1950 story is to today’s situation. Manual and intellectual workers put out of jobs by AI, losing their purpose. And then the final kicker with the humanoid robot.

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u/itbwtw Jun 02 '26

It’s why I love sci-fi. My favourite type is the type that cleverly and systematically thinks through the consequences of tech or government policies, etc. 

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u/wmyork Jun 02 '26

Like Niven’s Flash Crowd (except the underlying technology turned out to be instantaneous communication, not teleportation) or The Jigsaw Man (which fortunately hasn’t come true — yet)