The Age of A.I. and Our Human Future

by Henry Kissinger

As deep reading and analysis contracts, so, too, do the traditional rewards for undertaking these processes.

As the cost of opting out of the digital domain increases, its ability to affect human thought — to convince, to steer, to divert — grows.

Declining to use AI will mean not only opting out of conveniences such as automated movie recommendations and driving directions but also leaving behind vast domains of data, network platforms, and progress in fields from health care to finance.

example, in airline and automotive emergencies, should an AI copilot defer to a human? Or the other way around?

will increasingly appear to humans as a fellow “being” experiencing and knowing the world — a combination of tool, pet, and mind.

If attempted too early, the technology may be stymied, or there may be incentives to conceal its capabilities; if delayed too long, it may have damaging consequences, particularly in military contexts.

Nevertheless, the quest for facts and truth should not lead societies to experience life through a filter whose contours are undisclosed and untestable.

Will AI‑enabled weapons ultimately be available to anyone with a laptop, a connection to the internet, and an ability to navigate its dark elements? Will governments empower loosely affiliated or unaffiliated actors to use AI to harass their opponents? Will terrorists engineer AI attacks? Will they be able to (falsely) attribute them to states or other actors?

But cyber weapons, which are capable of both discrimination and massive destruction, erase this barrier.

Our problem is that we have not yet grasped their philosophical implications. We are being advanced by them, but automatically rather than consciously.