As a die-hard Tron fan, I recently went to watch Tron Ares in the cinema, and it stuck with me. In the Tron world, ENCOM and Dillinger Systems are rival companies competing for control of the digital future. Without spoiling the whole story, I can say that the movie shows two paths for AI: the ENCOM path, where tech helps people and opens new possibilities to improve our lives, and the Dillinger path, where power and control come first. Seeing that contrast on a giant screen made me think about how I use generative AI in my own life and why my experience has been mostly positive.
Day-to-day, GenAI, mostly large language models (AI chatbots), feels like an ENCOM tool for me. I use it to give me medical advice, clean up emails and messages, translate conversations. It summarizes long articles when I’m short on time, helps me outline essays, drafts slides and talking points. When I’m coding with RStudio, it explains errors in simple terms. And when I’m planning a trip, it helps me think through checklists. It’s like an assistant that only wants the best for you.
Part of why this stays positive is the way these GenAI tools are set up. It tries to be friendly and helpful, and it puts safety first. Harmful or abusive requests get blocked or redirected. It won’t imitate a living person’s exact voice, won’t help with dangerous instructions, and pushes me toward responsible use. That doesn’t make misuse impossible, but it does make it harder.
Of course, the Dillinger path exists in the real world, too. We see AI being built into defense, border security, and large-scale surveillance systems. Companies like Palantir and Anduril are known for powerful analytics and autonomous sensing platforms. Facial recognition firms have scraped massive image datasets. These tools can centralize power in ways that can be worrying. It’s very much like the movie’s warning: when a few actors control the Grid, ordinary Users lose agency. I’m not saying these companies are “villains,” but the direction of travel still matters.
So I set myself a simple goal: keep my use of AI on the ENCOM path. Tron Ares should remind us that AI Programs can turn dangerously powerful in the future. If we give them good goals, they can light up the city. If we don’t, the same power can bite back, with the risk of even turning against us. Kind of like Skynet, but that’s a whole other franchise.
