The unstoppable march of AI has our very humanity under threat. Nothing seems to be able to stop it. It is, frankly, terrifying.

Are we on the cusp of a robot takeover? What if ‘bad actors’ gain the upper hand in the race for global AI supremacy and harness its power with destructive intent? Selmer Bringsjord, an internationally recognised specialist in AI reasoning, claims that: “AI that merely approaches human-level intelligence, and is both autonomous and kinetically powerful, would be enough to end humanity. It doesn’t need to be superhuman to be dangerous.”

Collectively we seem to have sleepwalked into a scary state of dependency. Recent news of the scamming of M&S and the Co-op, alongside Spain, Portugal and Heathrow being plunged into blackouts, shed a harsh light on our hapless vulnerability to attack without warning.

Yet in a time when we can’t help but be focused on the human-destroying wars on our screens in Ukraine and Gaza, we seem to be giving the Robot assault on the future of the human species scant attention. Some attempt is being made to laud the positive aspects:Starmer has pledged to transform the UK into an AI hub with the promise of plentiful employment as a result. Headlines announce astonishing new medical and scientific breakthroughs with life-transforming potential. Claims such as these are not enough to alleviate the fear around what is anything but a fringe issue. There are decisions that need to be made.

So, who is fighting back? Step up Portobello High School who have recently introduced a ban on smart phones. Now pupils have to hand over their devices to be locked away into magnetic pouches until the end of the school day. Everyone I’ve spoken to applauds this initiative. Other schools in Scotland are due to follow Porty’s lead. Many in England already do.

That’s one way of fighting back - compulsory restraint. A long tradition that often works – smoking bans, seat belts, speed limits, etc. And when it comes to protecting the maturing process of the up-coming generations from an obvious threat, then yes, such measures are absolutely essential. Hopefully it will become the norm and all young people in Scotland will grow up knowing what a break from their constant robot companion feels like.

What I particularly like about Portobello’s decisive manoeuvre, was that they didn’t wait for legislation to solve the problem. They did what they could for the children in their care locally and carried the community with them.

We know this whole AI thing is too big to stop, and therefore have no choice but to learn how we’re going to live with it. That’s the nub of it! What are the human choices we are making for ourselves? At Logan Malloch at the Foot o’ the Walk, their artworks are on sale with: ‘made by human intelligence’ labelled onto the packaging. A few doors up is Ancient Robot Games, where young people flock to play board games – with no computers in sight. Small businesses in Leith are making their choices - to be on the side of humans!

Then last Saturday I got talking with a ‘reunion’ of five young men in their early 20’s, all mates from school: Trinity Academy. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon and we got chatting sitting outside the re-born Volley Bar on Leith Walk. We quickly discovered that we are all Hibees and Leithers and the banter flowed, without a smart phone in sight.

When I threw in my robot questions, they had plenty to say. They’re worried about the future of their jobs and whether the skills they’ve acquired through study and hard graft will soon become redundant. And like everyone else, they are fed up with how much it intrudes into everything.

One of them, Dwayne (next to me in the photo) told me about the old-fashioned Nokia mobile he’s switching to – because it’s not a smart phone. Dwane is a young man from the old Fort. He is a joiner and loves his work, particularly because the act of working with his hands gives him a break from the tech-mania on tap everywhere else. Now with his new Nokia he’s taking it a step further. That’s the kind of individual action we can all take.

Catherine and I are off to France this summer. We always travel by train and have noticed how quiet the carriages are. After some digging (courtesy of the robots), I discovered Article R2241-18 of the French Transport Code, which states: ‘it is forbidden for any person to use, without authorisation, sound devices or instruments, or to disturb the peace of others by noise or disturbances’.

Just imagine what it would be like if that Code was adopted by Lothian Buses. But it wouldn’t and couldn’t work in our culture. The French code was there long before the advent of smart phones. It’s a reflection on the standard of common courtesy that is, and has been, expected in public spaces; just an intrinsic part of being French.

France comes across to me as a country that has the capacity to take on the robots. 

The French embrace their revolutionary past. They can take to the streets to bring the country to a standstill with envious efficiency. They are united in standing up to what they see as a toxic American cultural-economic invasion. Today both Amazon and MacDonalds have a hard time. Tesla showrooms are burned down. Meanwhile the state uses its power to protect French businesses. The result: local bookshops are aplenty and Amazon delivery vans are a rare sight.

The end of the Second World War saw the release of unforeseen levels of American technological, nuclear, and political power across western Europe. At this time, France, under the inspired presidency of General De Gaulle, was desperately trying to rebuild its tarnished reputation, and reassert its global presence following the humiliation of Nazi occupation and collaboration.

Into this scene came Georges Bernanos, a former soldier in the First World War and a writer, later becoming a supporter of the Free French. After Liberation, he watched as his vision of a national spiritual renewal, was overwhelmed by the clamour for industrial and technological growth. In response in 1947, a year before his death, he published: La France contre les Robots (France against the robots).

Bernanos describes how he, “fears the impact on humanity in a world where an ever-increasing number of men, right from infancy, are desirous only of what machines have to offer.” He goes on to say, “We are witnessing the birth of an inhuman civilisation whose only manner of establishing itself is in the immense and universal sterilisation of the higher values of life.”

If Bernanos could express such fears so passionately nearly 80 years ago, is it any wonder that we, today, are scared witless by what’s coming. Defence from the robot threat is not going to come from any governments, “desirous only of what machines have to offer”.

No, it can only come from a deliberate shift in culture where individuals make the choice to live differently as sentient, flawed, and unwired human beings.

And leave the robots to rust, gathering dust in the warehouses of West Lothian.