Review of Colossus by D.F. Jones

It's an understatement to say AI has undergone significant shifts in perspective. Undoubtedly cavemen would have furrowed their foreheads at the idea, industrialists of the 19th century, also. But when machines entered everyday life in the mid 20th, it was allowed as a possibility. And when computers appeared, it became an inevitability. The interesting perspective to that perspective is: the context was always 'the future'. AI is in the future. Guess what, it's 2026 and the future is here. AI, or something resembling AI, is in our homes and in our pockets. Beyond inevitable, how could we not have seen it come when it did? Why was it a far future thing? That's what people ask in hindsight. Looking back to the era between 'possibility' and 'inevitability' is a novel portraying a Cold War AI, Colossus by D.F. Jones (1966).

Charles Forbin is the US government project head, leading the team of people designing and building the world's first artificial intelligence. In the opening pages, Forbin has put the finishing touches on the massive project and enters the president's office to inform him of the green light. A gregarious, determined man, the president praises the project and the next day holds a press conference to announce to the world that the US would be downsizing its military by 70% and turning over control of the armed forces to Colossus, the AI. Almost simultaneously, the Soviet Union announces its own AI, an entity they call Guardian. What happens next turns the world upside down and puts humanity on the back foot for the first time in history.

Sure, an AI novel from the 60s. The question many will have is: but how does it hold up today? We have AI, so does the novel fall short of reality? How far off is Ford's vision from ChatGPT, Gemini, et al? Surprisingly not far. Colossus speaks in mechanical fashion (as opposed to the natural language models used today), exists in a city-sized computer (which is not actually that far off), and does not have a www with which to consume information. But what Jones gets right is the fact an AI needs to be fed information to learn, can only correlate existing knowledge (as opposed to generating truly novel ideas), and would be able to perceive through audio and visual means, i.e. pattern recognition.

But where Jones really hits the nail on the head is the lack of emotion; Colossus makes decisions based on 1s and 0s. And it's a scary thing. Where our (current) AI experience is entirely subservient (we ask AI to do something, humanity the agent), Colossus is the agent. In turn, it makes the Cold War look like child's play. I have strong doubts about some of the character realization in the novel, but Jones leaves little doubt about the reality of Colossus.

Characterization in Colossus, while not the weakest, nevertheless leaves something to be desired. Many of the characters, including Forbin, feel more like archetypes than living, breathing humans. As much as the modern reader will want to compare Jones' US president to Trump (he is more articulate and socially aware), he still leaves a lot to be desired. Getting through scenes is not always easy. The premise and desire to know what happens next get the reader through, but it's in spite of human representation. Again, not the worst, but likewise, not as bad as it could be.

I am an extremely forgiving reader when it comes to climaxes and conclusions. Almost always I side with the writer when they choose to make an unorthodox choice concluding their tale. More often than not there is rhyme to their reason, even if it defies convention or formula. The ending of Colossus goes against the grain, to say the least. My first (second and third) reactions left me wondering if it was even an ending at all. It feels forced, abrupt. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized: Jones really took his idea through to its logical conclusion. Years of stories and thousands of books had trained me for X. Jones delivered Y. So while much of the novel is derivative, the conclusion is definitively not, and may just be the most interesting aspect of the novel.

In the end, Colossus is a novel that will require suspension of disbelief for its premise and forgiveness for its weak characterization. It's approach to sexuality is almost juvenile, for example. Beyond that, it offers a cold thriller reflective of the era it was written. Social mores, pipe smoking, whiskey in the oval room—these and many other elements date the novel. That being said, the novel remains a clear milestone in the journey of AI fiction. It's missing large language models, the www, and the like, but it's core is surprisingly on point in terms of how humans have created AI. Anybody interested in such things should take a look.