Metaphors that Give Clarity
Philippe Beaudoin · August 10, 2026
This morning I read a post where someone expressed their fear of out-of-control AI. It’s a fear I’ve had on-and-off in the past years. But I processed it and it gave me a form of calmness that brought back balance in my life. I thought of sharing it with you.
I consider fear a good signal. An indication there is something I don’t fully understand. When I feel it, I try to dive deeper. To name the source of that fear as precisely as possible. Otherwise it can throw my life in the wrong direction: acting mindlessly or granting power over me to the the powerful people who say “trust me, I know the solution”.
In the case of AI, some of my fear used to come from “universal” desires I projected into any system that had enough independence. I heard AI experts reach for metaphors like “baby tigers” or state things like “the more intelligent a system is, the more it will seek to impose its will on others.”
Then I took a big breath and asked myself: “How much of this is projecting? How much comes from false impressions? What could I try to validate?”
My answer was: I project onto a pure information system the desires of beings — animals, us — who have a body and who observe that their continuity depends on the survival of their body.
Am I correct in doing so? How could I verify?
That’s what I’ve tried to do. Some of you followed my journey. It was bumpy. But it gave me a few of intuitions that have eased my fear.
I’m not saying the future won’t be difficult for many people. We’ve taken collective decisions that place us in a very unstable position. I am not saying it’s impossible for the world to eventually feel like it’s “AI against humans”. But the metaphors I reach for are no longer “baby tigers”. They are closer to “powerful systems under the control of powerful people are inherently risky”. Or “systems that grow disinterested in humans could come to ignore their well-being”.
These metaphors warrant different interventions. Different approaches if we are to try to stabilize our future. Changes to political and economic systems. Better deliberative processes. Education that has a greater respect for everyone’s agency. Education that nurtures and celebrates diversity.
A future where we align more than we impose.