A reflection on technology, responsibility, and the fear of our own creation
There are stories that stretch like shadow lines across centuries. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is one of them.
It tells not only of a creature awakening from dead matter, but of a question that haunts us today more urgently than ever:
What arises when human ambition crosses the boundaries of the comprehensible without responsibility following close behind?
We live in a time when Artificial Intelligence is sweeping across the world like a new fire. It is a tool, a mirror, a projection space for our hopes and fears. And many people are asking if AI is the new Frankenstein—and if we ourselves are the real monsters.
This comparison may not be wrong. But it reveals less about the technology than it does about us.
1. The Creature that didn’t want to be a Monster
In Shelley’s novel, the creature is not a feelingless golem. It wants to learn, to understand, to be loved. Its “monstrosity” only emerges when the world rejects it. It is not born a threat—it is made into one.
When we look at AI today, we often confuse two levels:
- What the technology is.
- What we read into it.
AI is neither good nor evil. It carries no intent, no morality. The “monstrous” quality that some people see does not originate in algorithms, but in the contexts in which we deploy them: power, competition, acceleration, fear.
The monster does not live in the machine. It lives in the structures we build around it.
2. Frankenstein’s true Error: He Created—and ran away
Victor Frankenstein does not commit a “sin of creation,” but a flight from responsibility. He breaks the taboo not because he creates life, but because he abandons the life he created.
And this is precisely where the nerve of our present moment lies. The error today would not be to develop AI. The error would be to release AI into the world without accompaniment, transparency, or connection.
Anyone today who builds, deploys, or scales large models but is unwilling to:
- explain them,
- limit them,
- socially embed them,
…repeats the central moral short-circuit of the story. The real question, then, is not:
“Will AI become dangerous?”
But rather: “Who is accompanying it, and with what sense of responsibility?”
3. The Dark Projection: Why we see Monsters right now
Humans create monsters when they are afraid. And our time is full of fractures: geopolitical shifts, economic uncertainty, cultural fragmentation. In such phases, we search for clear enemies—and technology fits the bill perfectly.
AI suddenly becomes a mirror:
- of our pressure to accelerate,
- of our overwhelm,
- of our unresolved ethical questions,
- of our fear of losing control.
Yet in truth, everyone sees something different in the mirror. For some, AI is an angel—infinite knowledge, healing, hope. For others, a demon—surveillance, manipulation, alienation.
In both cases, we lose sight of the crucial point: AI is a tool of humans, and humans remain responsible.
4. Why the modern Creature is a Collective Being
Shelley’s creature had one creator. Modern AI has millions. It emerges through:
- global data,
- collective usage,
- economic incentives,
- political pressure,
- cultural narratives.
It is not the solitary experiment of a lonely student in Geneva, but the product of entire societies. Therefore, the question “Who is the Frankenstein?” is actually misleading. There is no single one. There is only a web of decisions, interests, priorities, and blind spots.
The modern monster—if there is one—is systemic.
5. The true Risk lies not in the Creature
The monster in Shelley’s story wanted only one thing: a place in the world. When this was denied, the descent began.
If we lock AI into tight cages today through bans, fears, or ill-conceived regulations—while simultaneously leaving its development to purely commercial or geopolitical forces—we create a situation dangerously close to the novel:
- A powerful tool without meaningful human guidance.
The danger does not arise from the nature of AI, but from the combination of:
- human greed,
- institutional inertia,
- political competition,
- lack of long-term vision.
It is not the machine that becomes the monster. The systems around it do.
6. Between West and East: A Perspective from two Worlds
One reason this question fascinates me is my own life between European and Thai spaces.
In the West, AI is often discussed within a linear ethics: rules, liability, risk assessment.
In Thailand—and particularly in Isaan—one encounters a different undertone: the idea of living together with forces that are larger than us, and the responsibility to accompany them correctly.
This resonates with the animist concept of Phi or Thaen, where powerful spirits are not “controlled” but respected and integrated into the community through relationship.
Perhaps the AI debate needs not only legal logic but also a deeper cultural instinct:
- how to handle power,
- how to cultivate relationships,
- how to embed new beings into an existing fabric.
Perhaps the modern Frankenstein needs fewer laws than posture. Less ban than wisdom. Less fear than attention.
7. And who Is the Monster now?
If we read Frankenstein as a moral map, one thing becomes clear:
The monster is never the creature. The monster is the flight from responsibility.
This applies to scientists, companies, states—and also to us as users.
The true danger is not that AI will surpass us. The true danger is that we will under-challenge ourselves—ethically, intellectually, humanly.
The tragedy arises not because we create. But because we withdraw.
Closing Thought
Perhaps the most important thing Shelley’s novel tells us today is this:
The machine will not become more human. We must.
A creature is only as dangerous as the world that brings it forth. And the responsibility for which future we enable for it—and for us—lies not in the code, but in our hands.
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© Robert F. Tjón, January 2026 | roberttjon.wordpress.com
Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International
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