There’s no doubt that AI, if achieved, will affect most aspects of society, including literature. But in the area of literary devices? Here’s my thinking. In NewScientist (17 December 2016, link temporarily unavailable), Leah Crane reports on the projected fate of the Cassini probe:
… the Cassini spacecraft will crash into Saturn, sacrificing itself for the sake of the ringed giant’s potentially habitable moons.
First, I thought this was horribly inaccurate. The flight controllers are the responsible parties. But, of course, this is a literary device, a little conceit, which led me to wonder if Leah is aware of it, or if it’s just an automatic expression, dispensed on command.
But then it occurred to me, if & when AI matures and becomes something like our equal, this expression will move from literary device to literally true. The machine could actually make the volitional decision to plunge to its non-existence in the clouds of Saturn.
(Telepresence for the AI comes to mind. Just for fun. Is it a literary device then?)
And that leaves this literary device an attenuated creature, some of its viscera dematerialized by the advance of technology.
