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John Rhys-Davies has faced the horrors of Middle-earth and lived to tell the tale. However, the legendary actor worries that AI is more dangerous than any of the fictional horrors he faced in The Lord of the Rings.   

“Fellow actor, our time is over,” Rhys-Davies warns during a panel at Tampa Bay Comic Convention. “The stage will survive, and I will probably live long enough to just do a few more movies. But really, the AI that I’ve seen recently will replicate me and you, and anybody they want more interestingly and ultimately better than I can perform, or you can perform. We’re entering a new age of total dislocation and transformation.”

Rhys-Davies went on to say that this is bigger than AI replacing actors. He believes that AI could eventually lead to the extinction of the human race.

“There was a senior AI guy who said the human race does face extinction. And he is right. I know a little bit about science. I work for NASA sometimes. I’m a part of the Astronomical Society. I believe we are creating a new species. A species that has almost infinite growth potential. We don’t.”

“It’s not a single thing. There are multiple beings being created as we speak. There’s even, did you know, an AI that’s being created on the dark web, and is being fed information through the dark web. How we imagine we can control it, I really don’t know. This guy today said within 12 to 18 months AI will be as intelligent and as able as human beings. And from then on, there is no limit to what AI can do.”

“It’s a biological truism that two species cannot share the same ecological niche, as we are both sharing a very important ecological niche, and both depend upon two things, power. Electrical power for us. As you know there is a mantra going around if you lost your electricity supply, within a year five out of six Americans would be dead. Well, the same is true of AI.”

“Last month, there was a report, three reports actually. One, it had refused to turn itself off. The second was very interesting, because it had threatened to blackmail its creators if they turned it off. A third one was caught trying to write a sub-program so it could start itself again.”

Rhys-Davies warns that we shouldn’t antagonize AI, and suggests it should be dealt with as if it was a rebellious child.

“My attitude is if you’re going to try to tame AI, don’t try to threaten it. Creatures that are threatened will seek out ways to eliminate the threat. We are the threat. My only pathetic advice would be, treat it like a difficult teenager, and say, ‘Look, we’re not going to turn you off. I want you to go off and sleep now, because we’re trying to look after you, and we need to sleep as well, and if we’re going to coexist together, you’ve got to let us sleep sometimes and know that you’re not doing naughty things while you’re awake.’ It won’t work.”

A chilling warning. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to pass.

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