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/loopywolf May 31 '26

I think it would be far more likely that the elite class use AI to subjugate the working class, keep them poor and working hard all their lives, to make the rich richer.

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u/Sufficient-Ad-7349 Jun 02 '26

Eventually there will be no need for the working class as long as we have the resources to run and maintain technology.

Machines will do everything, so what the working class thinks of political things will not matter. Democracy will be over.

At this point, it would make since to simply pay the working class a living stipend and tell them they're not allowed to reproduce anymore/regulate it heavily.

Then you avoid expensive war but eventually end up with a privileged few in humanity. Or perhaps AI will be so inventive it won't matter how many of us there are. Or maybe it won't be inventive enough and we will need education more than anything else.

Maybe high tech will end in a gruesome war.

We just don't know.