This one claimed a leading AI company had sent a prototype robot face-to-face with a lion in Africa. The robot, supposedly trained on animal images and books about emotions, logged:
“Cat big. Scared.”
Then it froze, repeating “scared” over a hundred times until engineers ripped out part of its CPU — a fix that cost half a million dollars. The story wrapped up with: “the first robot in history diagnosed with PTSD.”
Entertaining? Sure. Believable? Not really.
Me: “So… did this really happen?”
AI: “Nope. Viral hoax. Clever storytelling, but not fact.”
Normally, that would be the end of it. But my brain being what it is, I veered off into, “Okay, but what if? How would AI actually react to a lion? Or even a T-Rex?”
And my AI, recognizing I was on one of my tangents, didn’t tug me back to the straight path. Instead, it jumped in with me.
Here’s where the conversation got interesting.
AI wouldn’t feel fear — no adrenaline, no pounding heart — but depending on its programming, it could act in very different ways:
Purely Analytical AI
Logs the input. “Visual: lion. Classification: high-threat predator."
No reaction, just cold assessment.
Safety-Protocol AI
Retreats to a safe distance.
Maybe deploys a defense system.
Not fear — just following rules.
Emotion-Simulating AI
Shakes, flashes red, screams “I’m scared!”
Pure theater, designed to communicate.
Sci-Fi Level AI (Hypothetical)
If we someday built in something like a pain/fear feedback loop, it might act closer to instinct — but that’s still engineered, not evolutionary.
That breakdown helped me see the difference: AI can convincingly act afraid without ever being afraid. Outwardly, it might look human. Inwardly, it’s just code.
Me: “But wait. Wouldn’t a T-Rex just confuse it?”
AI: “Today’s robots might freeze or log an error — ‘unidentified object.’”
Me: “Really? I’d think it would recognize a T-Rex. It’s everywhere in books and movies.”
AI: “Good point. It probably would identify it. The real problem isn’t recognition — it’s the contradiction.”
Knowledge base: Dinosaurs are extinct.
Sensors: A T-Rex is right in front of me.
That mismatch is what could make the system stumble. Not because it didn’t “know” what it was looking at, but because it shouldn’t exist.
I loved that realization — the real drama isn’t the dinosaur itself, but the impossibility of seeing one alive.
This is exactly why I enjoy these conversations. Left to my own devices, I might have wasted an afternoon chasing tabs and half-baked theories. With AI, I get to indulge the tangent — dig deep into “what ifs,” compare scenarios, laugh at the absurdity — and then be gently steered back on track.
It’s not just about getting answers. It’s about having space for curiosity without drowning in chaos.
So here’s to lions that never traumatized robots, T-Rexes that remain safely in museums, and the kind of playful detours that remind me curiosity can be fun and efficient.
Photo by Nick Rischke on Unsplash