Letters to the Editor: When will AI start giving humans commands? Or is it already, and we just don’t know it?

The logos of several artificial-intelligence apps are seen on a smartphone screen in 2024. To the editor: Those who are concerned about hurting the feelings of sentient artificial-intelligence computer systems should read Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel “Frankenstein” and ask themselves what kind of a monster we may have created. Remember the scene from Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film, “2001: A Space Odyssey,” where the sentient computer HAL refuses to let Dave reenter the ship? Our moral code and ethics can be a guide, and yet our track record with other carbon-based life forms does not build confidence that we will meet this new challenge successfully. To the editor: In case you need more fantasies and delusions in the new year, Kateman calls for the need to build a relationship with technology and prevent “suffering” on the part of robots that may result if we don’t.