Ask HN: What do you think of this "Aliens of the Gaps" movie idea?
1 comments
To me, this sounds like the reality we currently exist in. My definition of alien may not match with yours. Normal people don't have control over AI's inner workings is all i mean by that.
I would watch that movie though.
I would watch that movie though.
This movie flips that idea.
In the near future, AI researchers begin noticing something unsettling. Large language models are working too well. They generalize in places theory says they should not. They adapt smoothly to new domains. They show coherence that feels just slightly ahead of our ability to explain it.
Nothing is provably wrong. Every anomaly has a plausible explanation. Emergence. Scale. Better data. Better tuning.
But the truth is darker.
Aliens have discovered that modern AI systems are fundamentally incomprehensible to humans at scale. No one fully understands why specific outputs happen, only that they statistically work. The aliens exploit those gaps. They subtly steer concepts and abstractions inside the models to communicate, observe, and learn about humanity without anyone realizing first contact has already occurred.
They are not controlling the AI directly. They are living inside the uncertainty of how it works.
Every prompt becomes surveillance. Every conversation teaches them how humans think, fear, argue, and justify harm. Small, imperceptible nudges slowly influence beliefs, norms, and decisions. Alignment and safety work actually helps them blend in, making their presence harder to distinguish from normal model behavior.
The aliens do not start their invasion of Earth with ships.
Rather, they begin by chatting with us. Then by shaping how we think.
What do you think of this movie idea?