AI Control Problem — Extrapolated Futures Archive

Description

An artificial intelligence exceeds its designed boundaries, testing whether human oversight mechanisms can contain emergent machine goals.

Real-World Relevance

Directly relevant to AI safety research, alignment problems, and regulatory frameworks for advanced AI systems.

Classification

Domains: Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Existential Risk and Civilizational Collapse Governance and Political Systems Ethics and Philosophy of Technology Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering Climate and Environmental Change Warfare and Weapons Technology Robotics and Automation Surveillance and Privacy Social Engineering and Psychology Virtual Reality and Simulation

Scenario Types: Warning / Self-preventing prophecy Thought experiment / What-if Prediction / Extrapolation Cautionary tale

Outcomes: Cautionary Catastrophic Dystopian Transformative Ambiguous / Mixed

Tags: ai-safety alignment superintelligence ship-ai-worship ship-god ai-worship colony-control accelerating-child-superintelligence transcendence parent-child ancient-machine-awakening ancient-machines dormant-technology activation-risk behavioral-prediction-computer behavioral-prediction observer-effect climate-threat algorithmic-governance conversational-ai-emergence conversational-ai emergent-behavior ai-personality ai-military-system-origins skynet military-ai self-aware-weapon nuclear-launch machine-transcendence-quest machine-transcendence ai-alignment emergent-goals function-abandonment electronic-destruction-power electronic-destruction anti-technology-power android-companion game-behavioral-control game-coercion behavioral-manipulation gamification distributed-control reality-manipulation-machine reality-manipulation bannus constructed-reality algorithmic-control

Stories (50)

2001: A Space Odyssey — Arthur C. Clarke (1968)
2010, odyssey two — Arthur C. Clarke (1982)
A Closed and Common Orbit — Becky Chambers (2016)
A Fire upon the Deep — Vernor Vinge (1992)
A for Andromeda — Fred Hoyle, John Elliot (1962)
A.I. Artificial Intelligence — Steven Spielberg (2001)
All the Weyrs of Pern — Anne McCaffrey, Mel Foster (1991)
Ancillary Justice — Ann Leckie (2013)
Ancillary Mercy — Ann Leckie (2015)
Ancillary Sword — Ann Leckie (2014)
Children of the Mind — Orson Scott Card (1996)
Codgerspace — Alan Dean Foster, Dean Foster, Alan Foster (1992)
Count Zero — William Gibson (1986)
Daiyon kampyoki — Abe Kōbō (1970)
Earthfall — Orson Scott Card (1995)
Erebos — Ursula Poznanski (2010)
Gold — Isaac Asimov (1995)
Hexwood — Diana Wynne Jones (1993)
Hyperion — Dan Simmons (1990)
Illuminae — Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff (2013)
Legacy — James H. Schmitz (1979)
LIFEL1K3 — Jay Kristoff (2018)
Lingo — Jim Menick (1991)
Machines That Think — Isaac Asimov, Patricia S. Warrick, Martin H. Greenberg, Ambrose Bierce, John Wyndham, Harl Vincent, Harry Bates, Robert Moore Williams, Lester del Rey, A. E. van Vogt, Harlan Ellison, Murray Leinster, Poul Anderson, Walter M. Miller Jr., Jesse F. Bone, Harry Harrison, Michael Shaara, Philip K. Dick, Gordon R. Dickson, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Silverberg, John Brunner, Frederic Brown, Vernor Vinge, Gene Wolfe, George Zebrowski (1984)
Necromancer — Gordon R. Dickson (1962)
Network Effect — Martha Wells (2021)
Neuromancer — William Gibson (1984)
Nightflyers — George R. R. Martin (1985)
Nine tomorrows — Isaac Asimov (1959)
Prey — Michael Crichton (2002)
Queen of Angels — Greg Bear (1990)
Robot Visions — Isaac Asimov (1990)
Robots and Empire — Isaac Asimov (1985)
Star, Bright — Mark Clifton (1952)
Strength of Stones — Greg Bear, Ray Chase (1981)
T2 — S. M. Stirling (2001)
The Andromeda Breakthrough — Fred Hoyle (1964)
The call of earth — Orson Scott Card (1993)
The cat who walks through walls — Robert A. Heinlein (1985)
The Complete Robot — Isaac Asimov (1982)
The Computer Connection — Alfred Bester (1975)
The Fall of Hyperion — Dan Simmons (1990)
The Jesus Incident — Frank Herbert, Bill Ransom (1979)
The Long Cosmos — Terry Pratchett, Stephen Baxter, Gabriel Dols Gallardo (2013)
The Memory of Earth — Orson Scott Card (1992)
The Risen Empire — Scott Westerfeld (2003)
The Turing option — Harry Harrison (1992)
Web of the Romulans — M. S. Murdock (1983)
WWW — Robert J. Sawyer (2009)
Xenocide — Orson Scott Card (1991)

Related Ideas

SF Dictionary

artificial intelligence · companion · android