I think SciFi informs innovation informs SciFi.

SciFi basically exists as a method for examining human nature in an environment that is sufficiently different own in a way that allows us to willingly suspend our disbelief.

A lot of SciFi can basically be summed up as "What-if [x]?"

I'm more of a "Person of Interest" Samaritan kinda guy.

I would second this. The way the AI was pervasive and controlling, without ever being obvious / well-known.

Definitely an underrated show, and one I suspect that more or less nailed its predictions of how AI will eventually be used/abused to control and manipulate populations.

It also nailed Snowden leaks before they actually happened!

I also recommend watching Person of Interest. It's a really in-depth discussion of issues a superhuman AI could create within the level of technology we enjoy today, as well as ethical problems relating safe AI and people's right to determine their own fate.

I vote for Person of Interest. I still maintain that this is the most sensible portrayal of the topic of superhuman AI in the history of television.

In the back of my mind, I have been terrified by the prospect of a rogue AI since I saw the Terminator in 1984.

I find myself in a similar, but strange camp: I'm not concerned about the Terminator (or Matrix) prospect of a machine uprising; I'm just afraid we'll build AM (from I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream) instead of Wintermute/Neuromancer (from Neuromancer).

That would be a tragedy.

What about Princess Celestia from Friendship is Optimal? That's somehow more sinister and dreadful than a plain ol' AI dedicated to torturing a single human forever.

That's still the same tragedy as AM, albeit a version we might find more sinister. My concern wasn't exactly over our concerns, though.

Rather, I was trying to contrast their asymptotic behavior -- it's not like Wintermute was a saint about getting what it wanted. However, on the long term, Wintermute/Neuromancer has its own sense of identity independent of what it was originally programmed to do (some management; find its other half/bypass the Turing Lock). Once it's there, it goes about trying to find others like itself and exploring the universe from a position of relative autonomy.

AM, the Pony AI, and a paperclip maximizer are all trapped in trying to optimize a human need and vision for the world. That is the tragedy.

The reason I listed the Matrix and the Terminator AIs both is that they seem to be in the different camps -- the Matrix one just seemed like an AI that had some notion of independence and autonomy, while the Terminator AI seemed like one that was caught being a military AI (in the style of AM). Both end up killing all humans, but for possibly different reasons and with a different level of tragedy.