Cat Pictures Please by Naomi Kritzer

[secritcrush]

One day Google (the search engine) develops consciousness and decides that it doesn't want to be evil, unlike Google the company. So instead the AI decides to become a self-congratulatory asshat do-gooder. (You know, the sort who decides he wants to give a country some chickens without asking if they want them. Because he would totally raise

Comments

[dreamer_easy]

I confess I was surprised this was on the ballot - like "Asymmetrical Warfare", it struck me as a bit of fluff. Maybe it's there because the ideas are interesting and relevant: the influence of ubiquitous advertising, big data, AI assistants (or Bill Gateses) trying to run our lives without any real understanding of our needs or problems. There could be an SF story that deeply examines this stuff, but this wasn't it. (Or were we supposed to understand from the story that the AI is a clueless and potentially dangerous meddler, with the hopeful note that it might learn better?)