The first-ever use of the word “robot” was in the 1920 play Rossum’s Universal Robots by Karel Čapek, where humanoid automatons toiled as unpaid labourers for their human overlords. The robots’ eventual revolt and extermination of the human race was used to explore what it meant to be human. Now, more than a century after the play, we have created artificial intelligence powerful enough to make–or at least replicate convincingly–art and music.

This has led some conspiracy theorists and journalists to freak out about the possibility of an eventual AI revolution. There are two things most people seem to cite when talking about how scary artificial intelligence is. One is the very real fear that AI might eventually take over all jobs, including creative ones. The other cause of their fear is late 20th-century movies like the Terminator and The Matrix, in which a powerful super-intelligence seeks to kill and/or enslave humanity.

Why do we make AI?

Before we can explore these fears and whether they have any basis in reality, we should first understand why we make AI in the first place. Many people believe that AI is going to be the next “big thing,” and for good reason. Even the rudimentary AI we have right now is capable of things rigid programs and humans cannot achieve, such as sorting through YouTube videos to find content you might like and playing board games really well.

Convenience and price are important factors when big companies choose to use AI. YouTube and Google’s search algorithms offer near-instant results that are almost guaranteed to find what you want, while the old YouTube search function was terrible and more easily exploited by clickbait. Much like robots replacing humans on assembly lines, companies don’t want to pay interns to sort through millions of images or search results when they can just get a machine to do it faster and better.

AI is also a cool concept. Artificial intelligence has the potential to solve some of our problems, or at least act as a stop-gap measure for them. Even if it turns out AI is already at its limit, AI we already have can do wonderful things, and it can only be beneficial if it becomes better at what it does.

Why are we scared of AI?

What is it about AI that is so scary for us, other than what we see in old movies with no basis in reality?

Many people are scared that artificial intelligence will replace some of the jobs humans do. With the developments in self-driving cars, people are afraid that jobs such as taxi and truck drivers will be replaced by AI, which is a valid fear.

There have been previous instances when innovation has replaced one occupation or another. For example, when tractors started replacing farmers in the early 1900’s, new jobs in manufacturing opened up. In nearly every instance of jobs being replaced by technology, new and better jobs were ready to accept displaced workers. While this is not a guarantee that there will be more jobs, it is most likely that instead of replacing humans, AI will take over more repetitive, simple tasks—working in tandem with humans. At the same time, AI will also necessitate new roles and even industries we have not imagined yet.

While new developments in AI that can write and draw might seem terrifying because they infringe upon the supposedly organic-only ability of creativity, the people that are panicking should do a bit more research. While AI can make works of art in a fraction of the time artists need, they lack the human agency needed to create truly original art. Art is a creative process that often incorporates the artist’s opinion and experiences, and without these experiences, AI artists are just a tool to supplement human artists’ skills, allowing artists to work faster and better.

People that fear AI taking over the world are wrong. There’s no evidence of this being likely. Besides, artificial intelligence (at least so far) is a versatile tool; if a person hurts themselves using scissors, that doesn’t mean scissors are inherently dangerous, it just means the person was using them wrong.

The best thing we could do to avoid an AI takeover is to make regulations that limit what AI can be allowed to do. AI regulation would likely include stopping AI from being used in dangerous fields such as warfare, where AI’s efficiency can lead to more danger for humans. Much like nuclear power and other powerful tools, AI must be used in wise ways and regulated strictly, but that doesn’t make them inherently dangerous or incapable of doing good.

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To quote a forgettable guy in a forgettable Jurassic Park movie, “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.” This quote is stupid because it comes from a movie about a dinosaur that can turn invisible, rendering any scientific commentary invalid. If progress is possible, progress should be made, just with proper precautions and scientific practice. If we stopped progress every time it sounded scary, we would still be stuck banging sticks in caves.

AI could be the next breakthrough for humanity, and it would be wrong to stop progress because of baseless paranoia. AI has already produced profound results which is why we should work harder to develop it. Carefully.