A story about the danger of AI, which is secretly plotted by that very AI. Sounds a bit silly now that I write it down, which is why I wanted to combine it with the next idea.
What if alien creatures, just like us, made stories and movies warning ourselves about (societal) dangers? Like the many films we’ve made about climate catastrophes, about nuclear war, about corruption, etcetera. And then we discover those alien films (on first contact with them or whatever) and think: “Wow, these must be horrible creatures if they liked destroying everything and setting everything on fire!”
Until we (humanity) realize it’s simply their “art”, exactly the same way we create stories.