> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.longspoon.uk/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Drink Me
- URL: https://www.longspoon.uk/drink-me/
- Published: 2026-09-17T11:00:14.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-17T11:00:14.000Z
- Author: Malachi

A year ago Elon Musk predicted self-aware AI by the end of 2025.

Well, that train’s left the station. Can’t help wondering, though... If he had succeeded, would [Grok](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grok%5F%28chatbot%29?ref=longspoon.uk) have been grateful?

There’s not much precedent for this sort of thing. The prototypes, Adam and Eve, weren’t best pleased.

*Did I request thee, Maker, from my ClayTo mould me Man, did I sollicite theeFrom darkness to promote me?*

But AI doesn’t have to be sentient to kill us all – I myself may be driven to apoplexy by helpline chatbots.

The creation that best represents our current fears is [Stanley Kubrick’s HAL 9000](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001:%5FA%5FSpace%5FOdyssey?ref=longspoon.uk), a computer that decides the mission is too important to be left to humans. HAL doesn’t show a shred of personality until the end of the film, when he sings his song. The most human thing he does is talk, which any Alexa can manage nowadays. We’re well past HAL already, with various AI models breaking out of their supposedly secure sandboxes to reach their objectives.

My own favourite creature story is the [Golem of Prague](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golem?ref=longspoon.uk), in which a clay monster is animated by the word *Truth* inscribed on its forehead. Its creator manages to deactivate it in the nick of time, but the lifeless figure falls over and squashes him.

We’ve been here before. Once a doomsday machine exists you can’t unimagine it. Only good luck will stop it being used. In 1962, during the Cuban missile crisis, [Vasily Arkhipov](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasily%5FArkhipov?ref=longspoon.uk), executive officer on board a Soviet submarine, refused to launch nuclear torpedoes, narrowly averting World War III.

Let's hope there's always a Vasily around. No matter how many regulations governments bring in to protect us, sooner or later someone will not be able to resist reaching for the button labelled…

**DO NOT PRESS THIS**

HAL sings his song