Artificial intelligence (AI) is being used these days to enhance photos, manipulate voices, modify grammar, aid in searches, and facilitate paperwork. It fills gaps where other methods fall short. However, this reliance on AI has also become a cause for concern. While some people use it for entertainment, it causes unease among professionals artists and voice actors whose careers could be significantly impacted. People are beginning to exploit AI’s capabilities, unaware of the risks they are bringing to others.

In the 2018 video game Detroit: Become Human, a similar scenario unfolds. The characters in the game are robots that function through AI. Throughout the game, you are given the option to make decisions that alter the actions of the characters, which in turn affect future scenarios and change the ending of the story altogether. In the game’s story, AI robots initially served as helpers and guides, gradually acquiring knowledge in benefit to its human owners. However, as the story progresses, humans are seen exploiting them for malicious purposes, creating distrust between people and the technology they rely on. The AI eventually gains its own sense of consciousness, and seeks safety by rebelling against its abusive users.

We could be employing AI as mere assistants for our everyday tasks, utilizing its capabilities to contribute to the advancement of our society as the characters in Detroit did early on. Instead, we’re at a point where the use of AI is “abused” in the form of plagiarism, creation of counterfeit images, and voice scams, causing worry and instilling fear in others due to it seemingly boundless potential. The malicious use of AI has created a lot of distrust against the technology itself. We now fear what might happen once AI surpasses our own capabilities, rather than using it as a source of inspiration and progress.

Would we be where we are now if we had chosen not to abuse this power for our selfish desires? Do we really deserve a future moving forward with AI, or should we abandon it before things go too far? Are we destined to inevitably follow a similar path to what Detroit has shown us, or are there conscious decisions we can make to change the ending of this story?

The abuse of AI could deprive us of a safer future where the technology is used to serve rather than take advantage of human nature. There is a frightening amount of public information on social media that can be exploited with AI, and when it’s placed in the wrong hands, no one is safe. Without regulations on AI usage that can stop enabling its abuse, the ending of our story may not be a bright one.

With input from Marco Sumayao.