Gray Goo Doomsday?

Could runaway nanobots take over the planet?

"Gray goo is a term used to describe a lifeless world completely occupied by self-replicating nanomaterials that have consumed the energy of all life forms due to uncontrolled replication."

The complete explanation:

Definition of Gray Goo

A longer, more technical treatment on Wikipedia:

Wikipedia: Gray Goo

I came across the term in a short piece in the BALTIMORE SUN this past Sunday. Discovering how long this idea has been around, I was surprised I hadn't heard of it before. Unrestrained nanobot proliferation is compared to runaway generative AI. The example given in the newspaper refers to ChatGPT trying to be funny. When asked to tell a joke, the program falls back on the same twenty-five jokes over and over, about 90% of the time. If this example is typical of the effect of artificial intelligence on communication, could ever-increasing dependence on AI lead to decreasing originality and creativity? The sidebar in the SUN is an excerpt from this essay:

If Generative AI Runs Rampant

While I don't necessarily think we're doomed yet, this hypothetical scenario about the long-term effects of overuse of AI in creative work does raise disturbingly plausible concerns. As far as the basic viewing-with-alarm "gray goo" scenario is concerned, there's an obvious counter-argument: Nanobots couldn't reproduce uncontrollably unless we first invent them and then release them into the wild without safeguards, similar to Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics. So we probably won't have to worry about getting smothered in goo anytime soon.

Margaret L. Carter

Please explore love among the monsters at Carter's Crypt.