Buffy The Vampire Slayer Already Predicted The Future of AI (Mistakenly, We Hope)
It’s not only The Matrix and Terminator that foreshadowed our future.
No matter how horrible the first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer was, the show made a miraculous comeback and became a true teen classic. It introduced audiences to the idea of a vampire show long before The Vampire Diaries and remains a cultural phenomenon to this day.
There are many great things to say about Buffy, but one thing no one could have predicted is that the show would be able to predict the future. Now, in 2023, with the rise of AI, we're just one step away from the events of the seventh episode of the show's fourth season becoming a frightening reality.
In one episode, Buffy learns about the Initiative, a secret unit of the United States government tasked with capturing and researching demons for military purposes. Although they seem to be fighting on the same side, the Initiative's methods include the creation of a high-tech creature known as Adam, made up of robotic and demonic parts.
Created for the sole purpose of fighting demons and helping humanity, the creature quickly develops an intelligence of its own, but comes to the wrong conclusions and turns against its creators. While in the show Buffy bravely stops the rise of Adam's army of his own, in reality, such an event is the worst nightmare of many anti-AI activists.
While society is far from allowing an AI to develop its own consciousness, there's no reason to believe it won't happen. After all, the idea of some race’s superiority is nothing new for humanity already, and you never know who may stand behind another AI tool or robot.
The only thing we can hope for as helpless humans is that Buffy the Vampire Slayer didn't predict a demon outbreak. In that case, the end of the world might be a lot closer than we thought.
If you are feeling nostalgic and want to relive Sarah Michelle Gellar's best moments as Buffy, you can stream Buffy the Vampire Slayer on Hulu or Disney Plus.