Lovecraft Expert Joshi Discusses Shoggoth AI Memes

Artificial intelligence is one of the scariest things in the world of technology for many people. See how industry insiders have adopted tentacle monstrosities called shoggoths as semi-ironical symbols of their rapidly advancing work.

But according to the world’s leading Lovecraftian scholar ST Joshi, their online memes and references to the creature stem from the influential late HP Lovecraft novella At the Mountains of Madness. It does, but it’s not perfect.

If anyone knows Lovecraft and his dire menagerie containing the ever-popular Cthulhu, it’s Joshi. He edited a series of Lovecraft collections, contributed numerous essays about Lovecraft, and wrote over a dozen books about him, including the monumental two-part biography I am Providence. I wrote.

So, after the New York Times recently published an article by tech columnist Kevin Roos explaining that shoggoths were gaining traction as “the most important meme in AI,” CNBC reached out to Joshi and said: I listened to opinions and found out what Mr. Lovecraft was thinking. I would say this about the damning homage from the tech industry.

“I’m sure Mr. Lovecraft would appreciate (and be amused by) the application of his creations to AI, but the similarities aren’t quite as accurate,” Joshi wrote. “Alternatively, the AI ​​creators don’t seem to have a completely accurate understanding of Shoggoths.”

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First of all, it’s a “shoggoth,” not a “shoggoth,” Joshi said. As spelled out in a Times article, the capitalized version of the word is actually much of “At the Mountains of Madness,” first published in Astounding Stories in 1936, the year before Lovecraft died at the age of 46. appears in the edition of But decades ago, Joshi realized that Lovecraft himself had lowercased it in manuscripts and typescripts for sci-fi/horror stories set in Antarctica.

“This is a species name, not a proper name,” Joshi wrote in an email to CNBC.

But that’s a trivial question. There are larger themes to consider.

Workers and others in the generative AI field use shoggoth memes. Shoggoth memes, often displayed as wavy cartoons adorned with eyes and appendages, recognize the mysterious and sometimes terrifying potential of this technology. “It’s unusual even by historical standards for some AI insiders to call their work Lovecraftian horror, even jokingly,” Rouse wrote in his Times column. wrote.

Recent advances in generative AI have already sparked references to sci-fi classics such as The Terminator and The Matrix, as well as Harlan Ellison’s chilling sci-fi novel, You Have No Mouth, You Must Scream. But these are all evil descriptions. Artificial intelligence will destroy most of humanity.

At this point, it might seem overkill to bring Lovecraftian cosmic horror into the mix, despite the fact that technology has created something spooky. For example, a recent Toronto Blue Jays fake ad was created by TSN producers using text-to-video AI technology and was filled with frightening images of people eating each other’s hot dog tentacles. ing.

Shoggoth meme creatorKnown by his Twitter handle @TetraspaceWest, he said that the Lovecraftian monsters are “apathetic, their priorities completely alien to us, and they don’t involve humans. That’s the truth about the potential for powerful AI in the future.” I think that’s where the inspiration came from.

The meme also literally depicts a monster with a smiling emoji on its tentacles, thus literally trying to put a happy face on the Shoggoth. According to The Times, this refers to efforts to train language models to be good ones. It also reads like a commentary on how futile and absurd it is to try.

Lovecraft’s shoggoths probably don’t like the idea of ​​sending a friendly signal, and in the story they certainly aren’t indifferent to the creator they’re usurping.

Artificial intelligence is machine-based, but the monsters in the novels are organically reared, slave creatures that have developed brains and wills of their own, Joshi said. Lovecraft describes shoggoths as terrifying, black, iridescent eyes consisting of “protoplasmic bubbles, faintly self-luminous, with innumerable ephemeral eyes that may or may not form as pustules of greenish light.” Described as a pillar.

A big concern for those who fear AI is that programs will one day be smarter than humans and hijack them. There is no parallel to this in Lovecraft’s story. Joshi writes that Shoggoths cannot surpass their masters, the ancient Old Ones, “in intelligence or otherwise.” “Lovecraft clearly states otherwise.”

That doesn’t mean the meme is completely off the mark.

In the story, Joshi points out that the Shoggoths rose up against the Old Ones in a series of slave rebellions that certainly contributed to the collapse of Old One society. His fear of AI, which has sparked comparisons to cartoon monster images, certainly resonates with that society’s ultimate fate.

“So while the common trope of an artificial creation overpowering its creator certainly bears some similarities to AI (or fear of what it might do in the future), it is rather disingenuous. An exact similarity,” Joshi wrote.

But even this imperfect metaphor fits well with what happens in Lovecraft’s tales of a once-great civilization with too many problems to solve.

In our world, a world of toxic wildfire smoke and water scarcity, violent insurgency in democracies, and the largest military battle since World War II in Europe, AI is part of a whole. It’s just There’s a lot of hype and confusion around it, as well as positive potential. There are also practical concerns. Specifically, how will AI function as a catalyst for bigotry and extremism, a disinformation engine, or a job-killer?

In the novel, the Old Ones fall prey to various threats, including attacks from rival entities from outer space. The story ends with a hint of an even greater, mind-shaking horror that lies beyond the Mountain of Madness.

In reality, humans can climb that terrifying height with the help of AI, but only if we make it happen. Perhaps we should wear smiley faces.