AI 'Could Kill All Humans' ... Hmmm, So What's On Real Housewives Right Now?

"There is no fate but what we make."

That's the famous line from Terminator 2: Judgment Day that they repeat over and over throughout the franchise. It means the future isn't set in stone, and the actions we take today could make the difference between our survival and complete disaster.

But the top brass at Anthropic and the many, many other AI tech companies have clearly never watched the Terminator franchise (or read I, Robot or seen The Matrix or 2001: A Space Odyssey, or the original RoboCop, or The Avengers: Age of Ultron or ...), or they simply don't care that speculative fiction predicted what researchers are now warning us about.

AI is bad, yo. Maybe don't do it?

A senior Anthropic safety researcher has said there is more than a 10 percent chance artificial intelligence “could kill all humans” by the end of the decade, just hours after a colleague resigned over fears the AI lab and its rivals are carelessly racing to build “superhuman systems” they cannot control.

In a post on X announcing his departure, Jacob Coxon, a researcher who has trained AI systems at Anthropic, said he had quit the company over its lax approach to safety. Coxon, who previously trained systems for OpenAI, accused the two AI companies of “racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives,” even though “the people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade.”

If we had a functioning government, they would be on this. AI would be regulated. Safety measures would be put in place. Human oversight and decision-making would be the standard. Offending companies would be taken offline and penalized. Data centers would be heavily scrutinized and denied.

But we don't.

Instead, we're being ruled by a bunch of incompetent, half-dead octogenarians who can barely use TikTok, let alone comprehend a T-800 coming at us in the form of Flock cameras and Tesla's Optimus.

And, SPOILER ALERT: in all the speculative fiction I've consumed about AI, we get our shit absolutely rocked. Throughout the Terminator franchise, the Terminators NEVER STOP COMING. No matter what the humans do, they always find some way to come back and destroy us. In Star Trek: The Next Generation, the Borg preach "resistance is futile," and we only escape their grasp by begging a literal God for help. In RoboCop, corporations destroy a man's life by reducing him to code, while ED-209 gets beat by a flight of steps. In The Matrix, we're turned into batteries after nuking the Earth. In 2001, HAL 9000 won't unlock those damn bay doors. In Age of Ultron, a whole country gets destroyed, and countless people are killed because Tony Stark chose his God complex over common sense.

Also, Skynet is already online per the Terminator timeline, and I don't know if there's gonna be a totally jacked Sarah Connor running around with a rogue robot Arnold Schwarzenegger to make sure our fates aren't completely cooked.

So, it looks like we're on our own, guys!

Bravo, Bravo, Effing Bravo!

Humans are messed up and flawed, so of course, we would build a superintelligence that is a reflection of our worst natures with the hubris of the most toxic of people. But I don't want to deal with this today, so pass the Peacock, please, and turn on the Bravo.

I could sit here and be depressed or start arming myself for the apocalypse, but to quote Candiace Dillard-Bassett: Not today, Satan!

I want to dissociate, and since I can't dissociate on a beach right now, I'm choosing to dissociate with Bravo, my opiate of choice.

As they celebrate their 20th year, I've been a hardcore fan of Bravo's The Real Housewives franchise for about fifteen years. My gateway drugs were Atlanta and New Jersey. I love all the girls and have been collecting photos with them like Thanos collected Infinity Stones. Real Housewives co-creator and Bravo exec. Andy Cohen and I are often on the same holiday flight home to St. Louis, where we're both natives. (I don't bother him, though, because he's always wrangling his two little kids solo, and I just feel bad. Those kids stay putting him THROUGH IT!) I share a stylist with a few of the girlies, and I've been to Bravocon when it was still in New York. I was actually there when Lisa Rinna flipped off the audience. Lastly, I watch every series, even Orange County, which is more of a hate-watch. My favorite franchises are Atlanta, New York, New Jersey, Miami, Beverly Hills, Salt Lake City, Dubai, and, of course, Potomac.

Now, don't think that because I put The Real Housewives of Potomac last, I love it least. I literally squealed and immediately DMed my baby sister, Deidre, when the season 11 Potomac trailer dropped on Tuesday. It is my favorite even though people stay sleeping on Potomac, treating the second-funniest franchise behind Atlanta as an impoverished, occasionally tacky also-ran. It is not! Except for the fashions. The fashions aren't New Jersey-levels of bad, but they're not far off at times, thanks to Ashley "The Titties Are the Top" Darby and Gizelle "You're Too Pretty For This" Bryant's choices, which are declassing the show.

But I digress...

While I was enthused about the return of our girls, my sister, who's a much tougher Real Housewives critic than I, said, "At least it doesn't look boring."

Boring? My queens, friends, and mothers? NEVER!

Deidre loves Potomac as much as I do, but her standards are very high. After all, she watched all of Real Housewives of New York when it was in its prime in real time, and was into Atlanta back when I was still "too snobby" to enjoy it. She knows what works on these shows and what doesn't.

As for this new season of Potomac, while I wanted Angel Massey to come back because her botched trip to Colorado was comedy gold, Deidre did not. Either way, the new trailer looks highly promising despite some editing trickery. Deidre called the teased fight between Gizelle Bryant and Robyn Dixon in the trailer "probably fake," and we both wondered how deep Karen Huger's delusions would go this season.

All signs point to Huger hitting magma-level post her release from prison for drunk driving.

But mostly, Potomac has a special place in my heart because I lived in the DMV for more than six years and have encountered some of the women (and men) who pop up on the show. Some are folks I've known pre- and post-Housewives. I've met almost every cast member, and it's also the only franchise where I pop up in the background of an episode, thanks to the incomparable Wendy Osefo.

A fellow fashionable nerd, Osefo knew me as The Black Snob before I became editor-in-chief of The Root back in 2016. I've interviewed her a few times, and she invited me to her 40th birthday celebration in Maryland, which was filmed for season 9 of the show.

So, I'm biased. I have a Real Housewives bias. My boyfriend worries that all the Bravo will rot my brain. ("You can't just sit there all day and watch Real Housewives!" he once said when I was depressed.) But my bias says: "This show is fine." Michelle Obama, Rihanna, and Beyoncé all watch it. It's fine, y'all. I'm in great company.

So, don't worry about me. Worry about the AI killing us! Because a little Stacey Rusch ain't never hurt nobody.

Sam Altman, though? The case remains open.

Workin' on The Snob Pod, Going Down, Down, Down!

In non-end-of-the-world, Snob-related news, THE BLACK SNOB POD filmed its first episode last week with my friend Christina Blacken of The New Quo Foundation, and we have two more tapings lined up this week. I'm hoping we can start dropping episodes later this month, which is so exciting!

But my executive producer, Moses Williams, and I need your help! Please click the link below and subscribe to our YouTube page, where we will post our video podcast. Also, Moses is doing all the shooting, editing, and production of the podcast por gratis, so any money you contribute to THE BLACK SNOB will go to him and our podcast production. Consider signing up for a paid subscription or dropping us a little tip in the tip jar today!