> I used to find it odd that these hypothetical AIs were supposed to be smart enough to solve problems that no human could, yet they were incapable of doing something most every adult has done: taking a step back and asking whether their current course of action is really a good idea. Then I realized that we are already surrounded by machines that demonstrate a complete lack of insight, we just call them corporations.
I think I saw Charlie Stross's talk "Dude, you broke the future!"[1] recorded at #34C3 around the same time as Chiang wrote his article, and that's probably where I picked up the meme.
[0] www.buzzfeednews.com/article/t…
[1] Transcript: www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-…
[1] Video: media.ccc.de/v/34c3-9270-dude_…