Throughout the 20th century, the expression \u201cblack box\u201d became popular as a concept associated with secrecy. But not with existential or transcendent mystery \u2014 rather, with a truth reserved for a few, devised by intelligence services. Since World War II, \u201cblack box\u201d has referred to coded communication. The British used the term for secret electronic devices, such as radios and radars, because they were often housed in black boxes to avoid detection by the enemy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Later, the term became associated with air travel. In aeronautics, a \u201cblack box\u201d refers to the voice and flight data recorders that store the entire history of what happens in the cockpit. These recorders are encased in fireproof boxes painted black to reduce light reflection and metal oxidation. The usefulness of these \u201cblack boxes\u201d becomes clear after disasters, when they help uncover technical failures or human errors in order to improve flight systems. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The term “black box” became popular to describe these secret devices, and over time it was extended to other fields. In artificial intelligence, a \u201cblack box\u201d refers to the phenomenon whereby the internal processes of an AI model \u2014 especially complex models like deep neural networks \u2014 are not transparent or easily interpretable: we know what results they produce, but we can\u2019t clearly explain how those results were reached. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This fact doesn\u2019t seem to catch the attention of most AI users. Even among developers, some remain indifferent to the issue. Nonetheless, it is a troubling one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Figures of international prestige have been addressing the matter for some time: Marina Jirotka, Chris Olah, Gopalakrishnan Arjunan, Carlos Zednik\u2026 Some of them even do so through associations created specifically for that purpose. But similar concerns are also starting to emerge from the business world. Such is the case of N5, a company that incorporates AI into its financial solutions and has long been advocating for an ethical approach to shed light on the opacity of current AI systems. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nikita Brudnov, a developer from Brazil\u2019s tech industry, has emphasized the dangers of this lack of transparency in AI models. He argues that this shortcoming could hinder adoption \u2014 especially in critical contexts like healthcare, finance, and law. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still, we\u2019re not quite at the brink. Many people still don\u2019t fully understand what artificial intelligence even proposes. And are light years away from recognizing its flaws. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A piece of fiction like Black Mirror functions \u2014 deliberately or not \u2014 as a mass-scale messenger of these concerns, which otherwise the general public might not come to know in time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Science fiction has often proven able to foresee social pains long before they could naturally be deduced. These warnings have also touched on the theme of \u201cblack boxes.\u201d In this British series \u2014 unmatched in depth and thematic diversity \u2014 there are several episodes that explore the issue of black boxes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Perhaps the most emblematic is \u201cWhite Christmas.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fallacy of Uniformity<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n The story begins with two men in a cabin. One of them, Matt, suggests a heartfelt conversation to pass Christmas Day. He tells two anecdotes. The first is about his previous work as an emotional assistant, in which he fails his guidance of a shy man who sought help \u2014 when the woman being seduced triggers, rather than a sexual scene, an unexpected tragedy. To carry out his job, Matt uses a technology that allows him to see everything as if the protagonist\u2019s eyes were cameras. He also shares his intervention with a group of voyeurs eager to see erotic scenes. But what unfolds is something entirely different. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The advisor assumes \u2014 erroneously \u2014 that the woman will act like the majority, as algorithmic logic would predict. But this particular woman defies the behavioral pattern, with devastating consequences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Pain of Time<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the second story Matt tells, a woman undergoes surgery to implant a chip that copies her intelligence, her thought processes, her sensitivity, memories, obsessions, etc. Once extracted, this \u201cduplicated consciousness\u201d is used as a personal assistant to handle the woman\u2019s daily mechanical tasks. The problem is that this \u201ccookie,\u201d or digital copy, has all the traits of a human being: emotion, desires, aspirations, emotional needs, and so on. And it\u2019s Matt\u2019s task to instruct and subjugate this copy so that it resigns itself to \u201cexisting\u201d only to work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Here, beyond the literal, the life imposed on the duplicated consciousness is a metaphor for the labor world when it becomes the only motivation and sole purpose. The woman\u2019s torture is, in fact, to endure time. Time that doesn\u2019t pass. Inaction. Awakening to the meaninglessness of a life with no being, no body, nothing beyond its function or role. The \u201ccookie\u201d endures this agony, and the assistant \u2014 once again Matt \u2014 admits to torturing her, primarily through time and stasis. This may foreshadow another kind of social harm brought by the paradigm shift in labor: what will millions of people do when they are excluded from the workforce due to AI? How will the individual spend their idle time when everything is automated? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Culture of Blocking<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n When the dialogue ends and Joe, the other character, confesses, we see a consequence of the \u201cblocking culture\u201d \u2014 this time taken literally. It\u2019s not just about blocking someone on social networks or in social groups. The block button \u2014 available to everyone \u2014 turns the blocked person into a shadow, indistinct and invisible. This futuristic dystopian tool throws the characters into emotional despair similar to that of the tormented \u201ccookie.\u201d Later, we learn this isn\u2019t a coincidence. Matt remains an agent of the \u201cinsensitive justice\u201d of AI \u2014 a \u201cjustice\u201d that treats humans as predictable, uniform, and \u201cfunctionally lobotomized.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Opacity<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n In short, White Christmas, the Black Mirror episode, exposes several aspects of \u201cblack boxes\u201d: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Behind the internal conflict of the \u201ccookie\u201d \u2014 which Matt ignores (and even amplifies) \u2014 lies the mistake of muting, of deliberately ignoring what\u2019s happening inside the box, in the hidden logic of AI systems. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That is, even if the copied consciousness is \u201cfunctioning\u201d as programmed, the internal consequences are neither transparent nor controllable. This is the core of the black box problem, as much of the critical community agrees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In White Christmas, creating a conscious being and confining it to a repetitive and subordinate task results in a destructive psychological environment. In the story, this duplicated creature suffers\u2026 And that suffering sparks unforeseeable reactions. Joe\u2019s story later confirms this view. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Dystopian Singularity<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n As far as we know, artificial intelligences are immune to pathos (emotion). But Black Mirror prompts the question: What if, at some point, AI began to feel? What if the knowledge-based power it holds became autonomous and started pursuing its own goals? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Dormancy of Human Skills<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Efficiency, speed, and convenience will undoubtedly lull future generations into underusing their capabilities due to a lack of challenges. <\/p>\n\n\n\n H.G. Wells devoted a brilliant book, The Time Machine, to the thesis that societies without dissatisfaction or unmet needs do not evolve. If that\u2019s true, every task solved by AI will gradually put to sleep the best of the average human: their adaptability. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In this context, who would remain awake? Who would keep thinking? <\/p>\n\n\n\n There are only two possible answers \u2014 both dire… <\/p>\n\n\n\n If the black box is like that of World War II \u2014 designed by a small elite with vast resources \u2014 only a few will know how to encode and decode, to think, interpret, manipulate. The rest will end up stupefied, clinging to beliefs imposed by AI as if they were their own. That is, what already happens would multiply without limit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This path leads to the danger that the most powerful will manipulate individual and collective human behavior by massively implanting facts, truths, and norms that become irrefutable. We already rely on the same data and content. The internet had already created that unison noise. But now, even cognitive processes could be intervened. Human beings, inclined to minimize effort, will delegate cognition to AI \u2014 and that would mark a great setback in human intelligence, at least in quantitative terms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But the other answer is no better: if the \u201cblack boxes\u201d are like airplane recorders \u2014 dark repositories that merely accumulate data, interpreted by the unpredictable heuristics of AI \u2014 then only chaos awaits. And the only thing we\u2019ll ever be guaranteed is the contents of the wreckage, in hindsight\u2026 when there\u2019s nothing left to fix \u2014 and nothing left to save. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It no longer seems excessive to speak of experts now demanding a global ethical agreement to regulate the dark cognition of AI. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Throughout the 20th century, the expression \u201cblack box\u201d became popular as a concept associated with secrecy. But not with existential or transcendent mystery \u2014 rather, with a truth reserved for a few, devised by intelligence services. Since World War II, \u201cblack box\u201d has referred to coded communication. 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