Ever since I heard the one about disbarred former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen having “unwittingly sent AI-generated fake legal cases to his attorney” I’ve been wondering what happens when some general somewhere is unwittingly convinced by equally unwitting AI that there are nuclear bombs heading our way, managing to create just enough confusion to be potentially world-ending. This, of course, is more or less the plot of the adorable 1983 romantic teen dramedy “War Games,” which we watched the other night.

Having been steeped in the non-stop nuclear fearmongering of the era (I would have been 14 when it came out), I remembered it as a cautionary tale about the futility of nuclear war, but as I had suspected, it’s actually a pretty good cautionary tale about AI. It’s also a little bit better of a movie than I had recalled, and it’s wild how not-dated the teens’* clothes look (can’t say the same for all the grown-ups), what with the ’80s being all the rage right now. So whether you’re in it for how cute Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy are, or for the still-timely speech about humans’ determination to engineer our own demise, it’s actually worth a rental. (Available on multiple streaming services.)

For a good read, see: The new Luddites aren’t backing down (The Atlantic / Apple News link)

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p.s. My ENORMOUS thanks to everyone who has stopped by to check out this new blog so far, and especially to those who’ve shared the news or even left a tip. Thank you so so much for the encouragement.

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*Broderick and Sheedy were both 21, playing 17-year-olds

[ IMAGE: a still from the movie War Games ]