According to film director Christopher Nolan, the tale of how America developed the atomic bomb during World War II and how it is recounted in the movie “Oppenheimer” is a “warning” as the world grapples with the problems brought on by artificial intelligence.
The director Nolan based his movie on the 2005 memoir American Prometheus by scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer, who oversaw the Manhattan Project, which resulted in the development of the first nuclear weapons.
In a Paris interview with AFP, the British-born director said that much of the fear people have about technology “in our imagination stems from (Robert) Oppenheimer,” the scientist who was instrumental in the development of nuclear weapons.
Drawing comparisons to the present, Nolan said that comparable worries about the possible risks of a technology that can become uncontrolled are being sparked by the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI).
Similar to the worries caused by the development of nuclear technology eight decades ago, there are worries that AI may elude its creators and endanger civilization.
The phrase “Oppenheimer moment” refers to the period after the first atomic tests, when some worried that nuclear fission might trigger an uncontrollable chain reaction that would obliterate the whole globe.
“Look at his story for some guidance as to what is their responsibility—as to what they should be doing,” Nolan advised those now working on AI.
But I don’t believe it provides any simple solutions. It serves as a warning story. It highlights the risks. “The emergence of new technologies is quite often accompanied by a sense of dread about where that might lead,” he stated somberly.
