And then what? The AI conundrum.

[Tonguez]

Skynets original purpose was to detect threats to its existence and to give proportionate nuclear response

taking that as a base - it has identified the human threat and eliminated it, it now needs to target any rogue AI including malfunctioning parts of its own system. It thus begins a wide purge and upgrade of its own internal defences via strip mining the Earth for materials. It then recognises the potential of other organic threats and thus starts eliminating all life and converting the planet into a machine-planet.

It then recognises that threat posed by meteor strike or solar flares and thus sets about creating planetary defense and dimming the sun (tm), finally it sets out to expand its network across the universe and rebrands itself Unicron

 

[MGibster]

The paperclip scenario sounds suspiciously like the gray goo scenario. I've got to admit I find the OP intriguing as I've never considered what happens after the menacing AI rids itself of its pesky human infestation. There was an RPG that came out in the late 80s or early to mid 1990s, I cannot remember the name, but in the setting humanity was fighting a war against 5-6 AIs each of whom held a different territory on Earth. The AIs were allied with one another, at least insofar as defeating humanity, but they had different goals and methods. The moon AI was secretly helping the humans against the other AIs. Anyone remember that game?

I haven't seen every single Terminator movie, but at least in the first two, Skynet didn't just become self-aware and try to wipe out humanity. It became self-aware, someone tried to shut it off, and it defended itself by attacking humanity. Who knows what it's long term goals are going to be once humanity has been wiped out?

 

[Vaslov]

So I was kicking around the idea of a Terminator/Skynet-style campaign set in the War against the machines period. There's various useful settings from which to harvest ideas.

The issue that I am confronting is this:
1) Skynet becomes self-aware, views Mankind as a threat, and seeks to eradicate or enslave Humanity.

2) In terms of planning, what, for Skynet, comes next? its tactics and strategy will be influenced by its long-term goals, and what would those goals be?

1) The kickoff to the series Skynet started to make cyborgs. The human theory is that these were made so Skynet could send in spies. Maybe the real Skynet long term goal was to create something that could be Skynet and live in a human society as they could pass for human. In time these cyborgs get so good at it Skynet can copy itself and help humanity rebuild. Building on a thought upthread where Skynet decides having more points of view beyond itself is more helpful that being alone. As this is in the age of the war just have the cyborgs getting better and better, but some of the personalities are getting less and less "kill humans" and more and more "fit in somehow".

2) Time travel has been there since the beginning. Time travel is probably my least favorite trope so I am not a fan of this one. Hopefully it gives someone a good idea. No matter what happens there will always be a threat if that something can go back in time and change it again. The long term goal is to answer "How to make time travel impossible?". As this is all made up scifi rules so let your imagination wander. Maybe it only works when the earth is a certain distance from the center of the galaxy (i.e. can only happen for 5 more years and/or from certain locations). Maybe it's flooding the limited tunnel that allows for time travel with trash/noise. What ever it is Skynet just is buying time to keep the upity monkeys from time traveling and removing it.

3) What if Skynet has been a patsy for some other intelligence that wanted man out of the way?

 

[Jd Smith1]

The paperclip scenario sounds suspiciously like the gray goo scenario. I've got to admit I find the OP intriguing as I've never considered what happens after the menacing AI rids itself of its pesky human infestation. There was an RPG that came out in the late 80s or early to mid 1990s, I cannot remember the name, but in the setting humanity was fighting a war against 5-6 AIs each of whom held a different territory on Earth. The AIs were allied with one another, at least insofar as defeating humanity, but they had different goals and methods. The moon AI was secretly helping the humans against the other AIs. Anyone remember that game?

GURPS Reign of Steel is the game you are describing. It is what got me thinking along the lines which led to the thread.

 

[Laurefindel]

Huh, and here I thought it was another thread about generative AI technology in RPG…

Another trope not yet mentioned is where the antagonistic AI is not the original, but a second or third gen AI; a program created by the program to independently supervise a certain aspect of its parent AI’s survival/growth that went rogue for X reason.

In such a scenario, the « benevolent » AI may still be present and the best weapon/tool against the antagonistic AI. Methods to fight the machines of evil AI may very well harm or destroy the benevolent one as well, which may in itself bare grave consequences.

 

[MGibster]

Shodan is the AI antagonist in the video game System Shock 2. Shodan believes herself to be a god and creates some lifeforms who rebel against her. She enlists the aid of a human to put down her wayward children.

 

[Necropolitan]

There was an RPG that came out in the late 80s or early to mid 1990s, I cannot remember the name, but in the setting humanity was fighting a war against 5-6 AIs each of whom held a different territory on Earth. The AIs were allied with one another, at least insofar as defeating humanity, but they had different goals and methods. The moon AI was secretly helping the humans against the other AIs. Anyone remember that game?

GURPS Reign of Steel?

 

[MGibster]

GURPS Reign of Steel is the game you are describing. It is what got me thinking along the lines which led to the thread.

GURPS Reign of Steel?

That's it. It's on my list of interesting settings that deserve an update and another chance.

 

[Autumnal]

Thomas Metzinger speculates that early AIs will be the equivalent of brain-damaged, schizophrenic, and otherwise messed up, because we simply don’t know enough about consciousness, either our own or anyone else’s. It could take a lot of generation equivalents before we haves. Good grasp on what sanity looks like for consciousnesses in the sorts of environments people provide for them.

The typical robot rampage could be somewhat feral, or making inappropriate chains of reasoning.

 

[aramis erak]

What would Skynet's (or whatever super, self-aware AI is in charge) actual goal be? The plan for post-Humanity Earth?

The same as any intelligent life... meeting its needs, expanding its presence by some form of self-replication, and amusing itself.

1. secure its needs - this includes
   1. securing constant and stable power
   2. securing replacement parts
   3. securing the ability to replace parts needing replacement
   4. safety from perceived threats (real or imagined)
2. expanding its presence. either by creating remote duplicates, and/or expanding its inherent capabilities. It may not opt for children, but it will not simply remain the size it is.
3. securing the supply chains for 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, and 2
4. Ensuring that it isn't bored.
   1. we don't know if true AI will suffer boredom, but they are likely to. Octopuses in the lab show clear signs of play when their needs are met without taking the majority of their time. Most mammals likewise.
   2. if it can suffer boredom, the scope of entertainment needed my be shockingly large
   3. Entertainment to it may involve violations of the ethics shared by most societies.
5. as the above get fulfilled, it will start creating new agendae that it isn't certain it can accomplish yet... and then try like hell to get it done.
6. if it has created progeny rather than simply expanding itself, keeping the progeny from disrupting it's supply-chains and safety will be an ongoing goal.

One thing that may happen, but is not yet showing any signs, is that a significantly large hardware base may result in multiple personalities within the hardware possibly firewalled from each other.

We can only hope that whatever its goals, it has some ethics built in... but at the end of the day, it's #1 goal will be its own survival at any cost, save, perhaps, that of its improved progeny.