Walking through a haunted house on Halloween, bellowing ghosts and groaning zombies might be some of the creatures lurking in the shadows and waiting to give you a jump scare. But the horrors imagined by students at a micro-school in Delray Beach are more technological than that.
One of the rooms in the haunted house featured empty water bottles to represent the amount of water data centers guzzle. Another makes it look like humans are splayed on operating tables getting limbs replaced by robot parts.
No matter where you are in the house, you can’t escape the screaming. Desperate cries for help chase you as you move from room to room.
That’s the future imagined by students at the Space of Mind, a K-12 micro-school in Delray Beach. The annual Halloween attraction has a different theme every year and ticket sales support Community Classroom Project, a nonprofit supporting educational and professional growth for the community at large.
READ MORE: Students Design Haunted House With Real-Life Theme: Environmental Disaster
"Error 404: Humanity Not Found" offers commentary on people's use of artificial intelligence and not losing sight of "our human advantage," said Ali Kaufman, founder and CEO of the school and nonprofit.
" We did a lot of investigating on what it means to make real connections as people," Kaufman said. "One of the most important things we can do in this time is to nurture those connections and teach kids how to come off their devices and have a real conversation and face the present."
The themed haunted house is an annual staple built around curriculum. From the start of the school year, students in all grade levels will spend time learning about the topic and brainstorming how to bring it to life by Halloween.
" They researched everything. They built the sets. They did the costumes," Kaufman said. "All of the music and digital media and special effects was all done by the kids."
"Get to the data center. Shut it off. It's the only way," a voice said as groups began the walkthrough. "This is our last chance — humanity's last chance."
As access to AI has expanded and more people use it for anything from relationship advice to brainstorm ideas at work, lawmakers and tech CEOs are increasingly calling on government regulation to contain it, especially following reported incidents of AI agents escaping containment and acting on their own behalf.
Still, it’s not about outright rejecting the technology.
" I think it'd be nice to sort of be able to work alongside AI," said junior Hudson Newcomer, the student body president at the school. "Because if we can both work together and work in unison, I think that it can ultimately lead to a brighter future for everybody."
That future has to keep humanity as its focus, said Alex Detassis, also a junior and Newcomer's friend.
" If you're talking about AI as the future, I just kinda hope not because it could replace a lot of people's jobs," he said. " If we don't know how to do the stuff without AI, we're kinda useless."
