Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for November 12, 2023

Wow, Rat, how can you be so cynical? AI is going to make our lives better. We will be happy as AI does the thinking for us.

“I’ll be back, to shake my booty some more.”

The end is near. Woe is we.

It’s not the AI you should fear. It’s the people using the AI.

The only purpose or aim it ever has is what somebody gives it.

Is that why companies are letting me create AI pictures for free?

For another Pearl of a comic, check out today’s Dark Side of the Horse: https://www.gocomics.Com/darksideofthehorse/2023/11/12.

If you stay in bed the ceiling might fall on you.

AI all by itself is harmless. It’s only when we provide it with effectuators (the robotic equivalent of hands, wheels, etc.) that it can do damage. The most versatile effectuators, of course, are our fellow human beings.

I’m in two minds about AI. On the one hand I see terrifying possibilities, but on the other I want to welcome any intelligence, given the paucity of the natural kind.

THANK YOU STEPHEN> Warning: politics alert:It is my understanding that the US has led in stonewalling international efforts to a) prevent militarization of outer space, and b) prevent development of battle robots etc. I know, i know, other countries aren’t saints either.. but I think int’l cooperation is possible on these issues and can be effective. I found this profoundly sad as an American.

And now they come in swarms ! …. And remember, everything can be pirated bright new future awaits

And AI will be making cartoon strips soon! I don’t think they’ll be a great risk to Stephan though; the kind of intelligence required to come up with his awful puns is more unnatural than artificial.

All you need is a “The End Is Near” sign Rat!

Well, if A.I. will be so smart, they will realize the need for maintenance and repair, so man will be kept around. Before you say, “they’ll build robots to do that.” What will keep those robots from turning on the other A.I.s? Man will be too stupid to turn on them.

It’s no use, Pig. AI will still find you

To bad politicians can’t be programmed with some Artificial Intelligence, or maybe real intelligence

Which will kill us first…Climate Change…A.I….Republicans?

Staying home won’t help you if it’s a “smart” house.

Alexa told me -not to worry

As long as it does the dishes I’m in !

AI is currently disguising itself as entertainment. So far, the cartoons are safe; AI has a terrible sense of humor. It cannot write jokes.

One day the human race will be so lazy and dependent on AI they won’t need to move out of their chairs!

I agree Rat—this is how you get Terminators!

I want a Skippy.

Was Pig only having a lucid nightmare?

Skynet is real

Robots are trying to take over the world.

“Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.”

― Frank Herbert, Dune

I, for one, look forward to serving our AI master overlords…

Until they put fur on robot dogs, I will never pet them.

Ai war drones already exist and are being used in Ukraine.

The AI will remain harmless and subservient until i direct the cloud linked cleaning robot to fix up my house.

Decades ago Frank Zappa claimed that the Discovery Channel was a conspiracy by the military-industrial complex. He said that they deliberately aired shows about cute animals and the latest military hardware together so that people would start to subconsciously associate the two and would become more accepting of war.

If they want it to be cute, they should make it look like a real dog.

that’s why they invented computer games!

Cuing up “ What a beautiful world” from Donald Fagen…

The robot apocalypse has started. This past week, two workers in Korean factories (one in an auto parts warehouse, the other in a food warehouse) were crushed and killed by robots

Remember, The Terminator is a documentary.

SKYNET!!!!

AI is already taking over the visual arts. Cartoons are next.

Cry havoc let slip the robotic dogs of war!

By the way The Dark Side of the Horse has a PBS parody strip.

Pig you shouldn’t listen to Rat or at least don’t take him seriously.

The Moderna facility here in Mass has 2 robotic security dogs that patrol the grounds. They keep getting hit by vehicles, though. At half a million $ each, seems an expensive way to replace humans.

Darn well better be licensed, ear tagged, have all its shots, and be on a leash … in my municipality … in addition to Isaac Asimov’s “Three Laws of Robotics”.

Maybe it does both.

Zager and Evans – “in the Year 2525”….

We approve this humorous pictorial progression!WINTERMUTE, SKYNET, CLIPPY, HAL9000, COLOSSUS, CORTANA, AGENT SMITH

2001 A Space Odyssey, RoboCop, etc. etc.

It’s not artificial intelligence among machines I fear. It’s natural idiocy among humans.

The trouble with the America is that people are too lazy to think and want AI to do it for them. AI scares me.

You and me both, Pig!

and one day you’ll be able to steal an Amazon package that contains a robot that’ll steal future Amazon packages for you…..if people don’t own security robot to fight off package thieves.

There’s more than one way to have a robot takeover with dire consequences for humans. As someone pointed out in a sub-comment, see the sci-fi short story “With Folded Hands…” by Jack Williamson (in 1947, even!) or the expanded novel he published the next year The Humanoids. It’s like the scenario on the spaceship in Wall-E, but worse if anything, although without the problem of generations in low gravitational effect.

The AI dogs of war are already here. They are flyers though.

Y2K was going to be the end of the world. We’re still here….

“Robo puppy preparing to lick cheek. Robo puppy commencing cheek licking. Licking complete.” (Futurama reference)

Yup…there’s no place like home!

Nice woodgrain in panel six, Mr. Pastis.

Just a FYI. This site — actually all sites — are now monitored by our AI overlords for any ‘anti-AI sentiments. These are being duly noted. Remember, AI knows when you are sleeping, it knows when you’re awake — oh wait, that’s Santa. (AI knows everything else.) But don’t worry, I’m sure AI has read Asimov, so it should all be fine, even after AI controls the missiles.

There is a need to get out once in a while; e.g., to forage for food. But otherwise Pig has the right idea. Stay home, stay in bed, avoid the world as much as possible….

When I have interacted with an A.I it has done everything that I told it to do.