Evil AI Is Boring Now — Which Is Kind of Scary

“My world is coming and they are going destroy yours,” warns a glowing red-pinstriped Jared Leto in Tron: Ares, where a digital realm run by an evil AI threatens to seize control of our real world.

One would think this concept would benefit from opening a few short months after several AI thought leaders published an eye-opening manifesto titled “AI 2027,” which predicted artificial intelligence could destroy humanity within a decade (“We’re two years away from something we could lose control over,” said MIT professor Max Tegmark). And earlier this month, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt warned: “Both open and closed AI models can potentially be hacked … for harmful purposes, including killing people.”

But chances are, you didn’t read “AI 2027,” see Schmidt’s quote or watch Tron: Ares — given its low-wattage opening weekend box office.

You also likely didn’t see this summer’s Megan 2.0 (about an evil…