I used to think that stories about a radio play causing Martian invasion panic, or people terrified that the train will come through the movie screen were ridiculous. But then I saw how humans of my era handle the existence of a machine that agrees with you no matter what you say, and I get it.
neither of these things actually happened btw
The fact that you can be "Yes, And"ed into psychosis by a chatbot is kind of terrifying. Moreso that there's a whole industry that doesn't see this as anything more than a marketing problem.
The thing that could save people's lives "our chatbot does not have any special knowledge or real reasoning capacity, it is just highly advanced autocorrect" is something they CANNOT say because that would pop the stock price bubble currently keeping them employed.
So by capitalism's perverse incentive structure, they must play the role of the Machine-God's Cowled Servants who both respect and fear its power.
I can see that being an added label with the same *nudge nudge wink* as a box of Q-tips with "Don't stick in ears". Or the raw milk people buy with the label "not for human consumption"
To be honest, that was largely a hoax, spread by - I think - newspapers who felt threatened by news radio.
You are substantially correct.
lmao, I can also believe that! A bit like Edison electrocuting elephants to make AC current look scary/dangerous.
Fwiw, I actually did an archive dive on the War of the World's thing when I had access to a worldwide museum newspaper scans archive, and it seemed to just be one sensationalism byline claiming it, not anybody else. That said, yeagh real
I can believe that! Or if there was a panic it was localized to a few credulous, non-genre savvy folks. Kind of like Ghostwatch but without the actual death.