“Murderbot” author: Today’s AI is years away from true intelligence

Martha Wells, author of the acclaimed Murderbot Diaries series, argues that today’s large language models are fundamentally different from true artificial intelligence and warns that we’re “light-years away” from genuine machine intelligence. Her perspective comes as the TV adaptation of her books debuts on Apple TV+ to critical acclaim, offering a timely counterpoint to the current AI hype cycle and corporate marketing claims.

What you should know: Wells draws a clear distinction between current AI technology and the sentient machine intelligences depicted in science fiction.

• “A large language model is not a machine intelligence,” Wells explains, describing current AI as “algorithms that can be very powerful and can parse large amounts of data” but lack sentient individual intelligence.
• She believes we’re “probably years and years and years away from anyone creating an actual artificial intelligence,” calling today’s AI marketing claims essentially fraudulent.
• Current language models are “pattern matching words” that sometimes sound conversational but are “not anywhere close to sentient machine intelligence.”

The big picture: Wells’s Murderbot universe explores themes of corporate exploitation and artificial personhood that feel increasingly relevant to today’s tech landscape.

• The Corporation Rim in her books represents a dystopian future where corporations control everything, competing to exploit planets and indentured labor—a scenario Wells sees as disturbingly prescient.
• Her independent planet Preservation offers a contrasting model of a society that actively works to address its problems, unlike the profit-driven Corporation Rim.
• The series examines how corporations might exploit AI and robotics for profit rather than considering the rights of artificial beings.

Why this matters: Wells’s critique addresses the gap between AI marketing hype and technological reality, while her fiction explores the ethical implications of true artificial intelligence.

• She suggests that fictional AI characters have “convinced people that this is possible and that it’s happening now,” enabling what she calls “the whole scam of AI to get such a foothold.”
• Her work highlights the risk of corporations “taking jobs away from people” through AI automation driven by profit motives rather than genuine intelligence.
• The distinction between current language models and true AI is crucial for understanding both the limitations of today’s technology and the potential ethical challenges of future machine intelligence.

What they’re saying: Wells emphasizes that human anthropomorphization tendencies are being exploited by tech companies.

• “Humans are really prone to anthropomorphizing objects, especially things like our laptop and phone and all these things that respond to what we do,” she notes.
• “I think it’s just kind of baked into us, and it’s being taken advantage of by corporations to try to make money.”
• On the current AI landscape: “People think talking to these large language models is somehow helping them gain sentience or learn more, when it’s really not. It’s a waste of your time.”

Neurodiversity and representation: Wells’s work has resonated with readers for its authentic portrayal of neurodivergent characters, something she discovered about herself through writing.

• “It taught me about my own neurodiversity,” Wells reveals, explaining that she didn’t realize she “probably had autism” until writing Murderbot.
• Her approach challenges the fiction writing fallacy that generic characters are more relatable: “The more specific someone is about their feelings and their issues and what’s going on with them, the more people can identify with that because of that specificity.”
• The series has helped many readers “work out things about themselves” and see characters “who thought and felt a lot of the same things they did.”

Cultural impact: The Murderbot TV adaptation has achieved significant success on Apple TV+, currently holding a 96% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes and ranking among the streamer’s most-watched series.

• The show was recently renewed for a second season, expanding Wells’s reach to new audiences.
• Wells describes herself as “still kind of overwhelmed by everything happening with the show” and finding it “hard to believe.”
• The success comes as science fiction is experiencing what many call “another golden age” with more diverse voices being heard in the genre.