Lucy Vickery

Spectator competition winners: who’s afraid of AI?

Credit: mennovandijk 
issue 05 August 2023

In Competition No. 3310, you were invited to submit a horror story on the theme of artificial intelligence.

None of your entries, creditable though they were, matched the horror of Harlan Ellison’s gruesome short story from 1967, ‘I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream’, which was at the back of my mind when I set this challenge. A sadistic supercomputer AM – Allied Mastercomputer – has wiped out all humanity except five unfortunate survivors, whom it can keep alive and take pleasure in torturing in perpetuity: ‘We were his belly slaves. We were all he had to do with his forever time…’.

I queried Russell Chamberlain’s use of ‘light years’ as a measure of time rather than distance with a more scientifically literate friend, but gave it the green light. Max Ross, Mark Ambrose and Joe Houlihan earn commendations. The winners take £30 each.

‘How d’you write a horror story?’ asked Martha. ‘Gore and guts, or just something that leaves you feeling uneasy?’

‘Both, I should say.

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