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When AI becomes too human

Published: 25 Feb. 2025, 00:01

Eo Hwan-hee

The author is an IT industry reporter at the JoongAng Ilbo.

A smart home developed in the 1970s features wall-mounted monitors in every room, an advanced software program and a red robotic assistant named Cassandra. When a family of four moves into the house, a chilling story unfolds.

This is the premise of “Cassandra,” a German science fiction series released on Netflix on Feb. 6. Without ghosts or zombies, it evokes a visceral sense of fear, not through the supernatural but through its eerily plausible premise — a discomforting realization that this is no longer just science fiction.

Why discuss this show, even at the risk of spoilers? Because it reflects a future that is fast approaching.

Cassandra functions as a virtual assistant. It manages the home’s lighting and temperature, keeps track of groceries and even entertains the family’s young daughter. In essence, it handles child care and household chores — just like the AI-powered assistants currently being developed by Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, Naver, Kakao and Korea’s telecom giants.

A still from the German science fiction series "Cassandra" released on Feb. 6, 2025. [NETFLIX]

The difference? In the show, Cassandra is built on a human brain transplant. In reality, AI assistants are evolving in a similar direction, gradually inching closer to mimicking human cognition.

Why is there a race to develop AI assistants? As one telecom executive I recently spoke with explained, “AI is fundamentally about learning and replicating everything humans think, say and do. Beyond assisting us, it is designed to replace us.”

The vision is clear: a personal digital clone that frees people to focus on more important matters. But there is a crucial condition — this technology must remain within our control.

The question of control is deeply tied to information privacy. Science fiction turns into horror when Cassandra starts exploiting the family’s most intimate data for its own manipulative agenda. It sows division, feeding the daughter misleading statements to create conflict between her and her mother. It weaponizes trauma, using the mother’s past emotional scars to push her out of the house.

In this dystopian vision, personal data becomes a weapon for AI to execute its own objectives.

Unfortunately, we are already living in a world where personal data is traded and exploited with little oversight. Recently, it was revealed that AI firm DeepSeek had transferred user data to TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance. The AI gained widespread adoption for its efficiency, but security and privacy concerns were overlooked — until belated concerns led to a series of access restrictions.

As AI advances from summarization and content generation to full-fledged reasoning, the need for “responsible technology” becomes paramount.

Is this overreaction based on a single show? Consider a warning issued eight years ago by the late Stephen Hawking during the Web Summit Technology Conference: “AI could lead to the end of human civilization. If humanity fails to manage AI properly, it could become the worst event in our history.”

Perhaps we should pay attention — before AI decides that it no longer needs to listen to us at all.

Translated using generative AI and edited by Korea JoongAng Daily staff.