History repeats: a 1959 mocking poem derided Norbert Wiener's AI warnings
burny_tech · x · 2026-11-12
A fun slice of AI history: before Geoffrey Hinton vs. Meta's Yann LeCun, it was Norbert Wiener vs. IBM's Arthur L. Samuel in 1959. The attached image shows a period poem, "A Sigh for Cybernetics," mercilessly mocking Wiener for warning that thinking machines were outwitting their masters and might spiral out of control — proof that mocking AI doubters is a tradition at least 70 years old.
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