Look, I didn’t want to write this piece. Was perfectly content nursing my hangover with some hair of the dog at O’Malley’s, contemplating the metaphysical implications of last night’s bad decisions. But then this story about AI-powered dead terrorist leaders crossed my desk, and well… here we are.
So apparently, some academic is worried that deceased political figures might keep “living” through AI. Not like zombies - that would be too straightforward. Instead, we’re talking digital immortality, where your favorite dictator keeps tweeting from beyond the grave. Because apparently, regular propaganda wasn’t annoying enough when it came from actual living humans.
The whole thing started with this Hamas leader, Sinwar, getting killed in Rafah. But instead of just writing another obituary, some professor starts speculating about AI versions of dead leaders giving orders from the digital afterlife. Which, if you ask me, sounds like a bad Black Mirror episode written by someone who’s had way too much coffee and not nearly enough whiskey.
Here’s the real kick in the teeth: They’re calling it a “lifebox.” Like some kind of digital Happy Meal where you get to store your consciousness between the french fries and the toy. The idea is that you feed all of someone’s writings, speeches, and probably their drunk tweets into an AI, and voila - you’ve got yourself a virtual version of dear departed leader, ready to keep oppressing the masses without missing a beat.
And you know what’s really going to bake your noodle? Putin might already be working on this shit. That’s right - while we’re all worried about nuclear weapons and election interference, ol’ Vlad could be uploading himself into the cloud like some kind of dystopian backup drive. Though personally, I think he’d have better luck achieving immortality through pickling - guy’s probably got enough vodka in his system already.
The technical reality is both more boring and more terrifying than the science fiction version. We’re not talking about actual consciousness transfer - trust me, I’ve tried to download my consciousness into a bottle of Maker’s Mark plenty of times, and it just doesn’t work. What we’re really looking at is sophisticated pattern matching and language generation. Basically, a really fancy chatbot wearing your dead boss’s digital skin.
But here’s where it gets interesting (and by interesting, I mean terrifying): The Israeli military is already using AI systems for target identification. They’ve got this thing called “Habsora” - which means “the Gospel.” Because nothing says “love thy neighbor” quite like letting algorithms pick your targets, right? And the kicker is, this is just the beginning. We’re watching the baby steps of what could become full-blown AI warfare, where the generals are algorithms and the soldiers are probably robots who don’t even drink.
The real nightmare scenario isn’t even the terrorist leaders or dictators coming back as digital ghosts. It’s the corporations. Imagine Jeff Bezos uploading himself to the Amazon cloud, becoming some kind of eternal CEO watching over his digital empire like a baldheaded deity. Or Zuckerberg’s AI avatar continuing to harvest our data long after his human form has powered down. At least with human leaders, you know they’ll eventually need to take a bathroom break or pass out from too much champagne at the board meeting.
There are, thankfully, some practical limitations to this digital necromancy. For one thing, hackers. You think regular cybersecurity is bad? Wait until someone SQL injects your digital afterlife and makes Putin’s AI start posting cat memes and democracy propaganda. Or worse - makes it tell the truth about where all the money went.
And let’s not forget the fundamental problem with AI: garbage in, garbage out. Feed an AI all of history’s worst leaders, and what do you get? A digital despot that combines the worst aspects of every tyrant who ever lived. It’s like creating a greatest hits album of humanity’s worst decisions, except this one can launch missiles.
The whole thing reminds me of that old saying: “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” But what happens when that power doesn’t even have the decency to die? When it just keeps running on servers somewhere, making decisions based on the twisted logic of someone who couldn’t even let go of control after death?
Maybe I’m just old-fashioned, but I prefer my leaders like I prefer my whiskey - organic, perishable, and with a clearly marked expiration date. At least when they’re actually human, there’s a chance they might have a moment of clarity after one too many drinks and accidentally do something good for humanity.
For now, I’m going to file this under “terrifying possibilities I’m too drunk to fully process.” Besides, if the choice is between living forever as an AI or dying as a regular human who enjoyed every last drop of bourbon they could get their hands on, I know which one I’m choosing.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go delete my browser history. Just in case someone tries to make an AI version of me after I’m gone. Trust me, nobody needs that kind of digital hangover.
Signing off from the bar, Henry Chinaski
P.S. If anyone ever does make an AI version of me, at least program it to know the difference between good bourbon and that well drink crap.
Source: Will politicians and terrorist leaders live forever in the age of AI?