In one of many opening pictures of Un Chien Andalou, a 1929 French movie co-written by Salvador Dalí, typically cited as one of many first surrealist movies, a younger girl stares immediately on the digicam as a razor blade slices throughout her eye. OK, she did not even have her eye slit open, because of film magic and all. But the film makes use of surrealism as a strong new means of seeing and decoding the world. It’s imagined to shock us out of passive viewing and spectatorship, and take us past conventional notion. Last Thursday, as I sat in a lecture corridor on the Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, listening to a speak about rising know-how and innovation in 2026, I hoped for a dialogue about equally revolutionary trendy improvements. But far too typically, once we speak about AI, we do not confront this doubtlessly revolutionary know-how with our eyes large open. Instead, whether or not it is in small lectures, social media posts or Super Bowl commercials, we get a one-sided advertising and marketing pitch that masks the true dangers and issues surrounding AI. Based on the viewers’s questions through the Q&A, this was seemingly the primary actual introduction to generative and bodily AI for a lot of of them. The group absorbed all the things uncritically, nodding alongside and blooming with pleasure because the lecture painted an image of a future reworked totally for the higher. In one notably grating occasion, we have been proven a video of LG’s laundry-folding robotic that debuted final month on the CES 2026 commerce present in Las Vegas. Having seen the robotic for myself, I knew how sluggish it was at folding only one uniform-sized T-shirt. A robotic that may really help with residence chores is years away. “Who wants this robot?” the speaker shouted, and arms raised everywhere in the room. Was there any point out of the know-how’s limitations, like the truth that it wants human assist to succeed in into the hamper? Was there any point out of the prohibitive price? Of course not. The crowd left that room with their understanding of AI formed by somebody who had rigorously averted mentioning any of the know-how’s downsides. This is an issue. The folks with platforms — whether or not they’re tech consultants, museum lecturers or influencers with hundreds of thousands of followers — have a duty to inform the reality about AI. Not simply the thrilling elements. Not simply the elements that make for good advertising and marketing. All of it. Surrealism was intentional and deeply human, rooted in our minds and expressions and feelings. Generative AI is machine-driven sample recognition.When we speak about AI, we have to confront it with our eyes large open. Eoneren/Getty PhotographsWhen public figures spotlight AI’s capabilities, they gloss over its dangers: the devastating environmental affect, the proclivity for chatbots to hallucinate and make issues up, the regarding means AI use impacts reminiscence expertise and the rising incidents of AI-induced psychosis and suicide. These risks are conveniently not noted of the dialog; conversations that form public notion in a means that serves a choose few’s pursuits, not the world’s. We’ve seen this harmful sample earlier than. Since a 2018 US Supreme Court determination allowed states to legalize sports activities betting, celebrities and influencers have lined as much as promote betting apps, pocketing huge checks whereas their followers face rising charges of playing habit and monetary smash. The 2021 crypto growth additionally introduced a parade of celebrities hawking digital cash, a lot of which later crashed, leaving common folks holding nugatory belongings. Kim Kardashian settled with the SEC for $1.26 million in penalties for selling a crypto token with out disclosing that she was paid to take action. Matt Damon informed us “fortune favors the brave” in a February 2022 Crypto.com Super Bowl advert that aged terribly within the wake of that yr’s crypto crash. We’re watching the identical story unfold with AI. We’re seeing household-name actors soar into Super Bowl commercials championing AI firms for 100 million folks. Influencers are taking cash from AI firms to advertise instruments they most likely do not even use and certain do not even perceive, to audiences who’ve grown to belief them. The distinction is that AI’s dangers transcend monetary loss. We’re speaking about job displacement, the erosion of artistic industries, the unfold of misinformation at scale, deepfakes that may destroy reputations and, as talked about earlier, the environmental price of operating these huge fashions. This is why I recognize artists like Guillermo del Toro who converse realistically about AI. When fashions that referenced his distinctive visible type went viral, he did not mince phrases about generative AI educated on artists’ work with out their permission, compensation or respect for copyright legal guidelines. He known as it theft. Other artists and public figures have been equally direct in regards to the menace AI poses to their livelihoods and craft. Meanwhile, tech executives and builders dismiss these issues as the newest wave of Luddism. Amazon launched its Super Bowl advert, advertising and marketing Alexa Plus and its slew of AI options, with the assistance of Chris Hemsworth. AmazonWhereas I usually imagine that well-known individuals are not function fashions to observe or belief, many individuals do. They assume that if somebody with credentials or superstar is enthusiastically selling one thing, then it should be secure, helpful and inevitable. That public belief comes with duty. If you are going to insist on speaking about AI in public, taking $600,000 to advertise Microsoft Copilot to hundreds of thousands on social media or, should you’re the NFL, partnering with an AI firm in a business airing through the largest sporting occasion in America, you’ve an obligation to current the total image — particularly to audiences who’re simply studying about it. Speak in regards to the limitations. Talk in regards to the jobs which might be being eradicated. Mention the artists whose work is being scraped with out consent to coach these fashions. Acknowledge the staggering vitality consumption. Explain how simple it’s to generate convincing misinformation. Disclose once you’re paid by an AI firm to say what you are saying. This does not imply you may’t talk about the chances and advantages of AI. It has actual potential to speed up drug discovery, enhance illness outcomes and resolve advanced issues. But framing it as pure progress and innovation — as an unalloyed good — is ignorant or misleading. Like the surrealist work that emerged after World War I, AI is revolutionary, provocative and disruptive. They each problem the methods we see the world. But surrealism was intentional and deeply human, rooted in our minds and expressions and feelings. Generative AI is machine-driven sample recognition. Surrealism was created to defy conventions and attain the final word reality and authenticity. We nonetheless deserve the reality now. The dialog round AI is going on, whether or not we prefer it or not, and it is taking place quick. The least we are able to ask is that the folks main that dialog inform us the info of the matter.
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