Snack Company Hatches 'Genius' Plan to Survive the Imminent AI Apocalypse

As fears around artificial intelligence (AI) increase, the maker of a curiously crunchy half-popped popcorn snack is calling on developers, code ninjas and white-hat hackers to protect them when the machines take over and try to kill us all.

Halfpops is targeting coders with its first national campaign, a digital effort based around the “Halfpocalypse Challenge.” Those who are able to demonstrate their AI-fighting code skills will be mailed a box that contains a month’s supply of Halfpops rations. The campaign launched today.

In a three-minute video created by Chattanooga agency Humanaut, a Halfpops spokesperson scurries around a mountaintop alternating between telling viewers about the tasty snacks and outlining the company’s plan to survive the impending technological Armageddon, which he’s clearly not prepared for. The ads on Facebook and YouTube direct people to the Halfpops microsite at www.halfpops.com, where they must prove they can write software code in order to receive the Halfpops box of rations. The carrot comes with a caveat: coders must sign the legally binding “Halfpocalypse Agreement,” vowing to protect Halfpop’s employees when the sentient machines start their killing spree.

While the campaign may seem like pure science-fiction, there is real and rising concern among the Technorati about artificial intelligence’s threat to humanity. Tesla founder Elon Musk and fellow tech elites have pooled $1 billion to back nonprofit research firm OpenAI, which aims to advance AI technology that helps rather than harms humanity.

“There’s no consensus among AI researchers about how long it will take to build human-level AI and beyond,” theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking has said. “When it eventually does occur, it’s likely to be either the best or worst thing ever to happen to humanity.”

The company is promoting the campaign with the first-ever binary hashtag on Twitter, #0110100001100001011011000110011001110000011011110111000001110011. “We may be geniuses when it comes to popping popcorn perfectly halfway, but we have no clue what’s going to happen when AI advances beyond human intelligence,” explains Mike Fitzgerald, Halfpops CEO. “We figured we should probably make friends with the people who speak these robots’ languages, before it’s too late.”