Genesis Quotes

“Neither theory has failed, but both cannot be true,”
― Henry A. Kissinger, Genesis: Artificial Intelligence, Hope, and the Human Spirit

“American writer Jack London declares triumphantly: “The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.”5 For others, writes Tolstoy (quoting Socrates), “We move closer to the truth only to the extent that we move further from life.”
― Eric Schmidt, Genesis: Artificial Intelligence, Hope, and the Human Spirit

“But what if AI, while acting as an economic equalizer, sends the cost of intelligence, and therefore of labor, plummeting toward zero? That would conclude the brief but wonderfully productive period of human history that has allowed individuals in free societies to improve their circumstances, should they so choose, by their own efforts.”
― Eric Schmidt, Genesis: Artificial Intelligence, Hope, and the Human Spirit

“As Tolstoy writes, “If we admit that human life can be ruled by reason, the possibility of life itself is destroyed.”14”
― Henry A. Kissinger, Genesis: Artificial Intelligence, Hope, and the Human Spirit

“has”
― Eric Schmidt, Genesis: Artificial Intelligence, Hope, and the Human Spirit

“We are trying to build something modeled on the brain—and superior to the brain—while still not fully understanding the brain itself.”
― Henry A. Kissinger, Genesis: Artificial Intelligence, Hope, and the Human Spirit

“In brief, models trained via machine learning allow humans to know new things (the models’ outputs) but not to understand how the discoveries were made (the models’ internal processes).”
― Henry A. Kissinger, Genesis: Artificial Intelligence, Hope, and the Human Spirit

“But in counseling us and others that he was himself but a humble student both of humanity and of its latest and potentially final creation, he impressed upon us that the greatest danger posed by AI would be for us to declare too early, or too completely, that we understand it.”
― Henry A. Kissinger, Genesis: Artificial Intelligence, Hope, and the Human Spirit

“AI is helping us to listen and look for extraterrestrial life, sifting through billions of older technosignatures, separating those caused by human interference from potentially foreign sources.20 Where humans would only hear static, AI might recognize previously indecipherable or overlooked communications.”
― Henry A. Kissinger, Genesis: Artificial Intelligence, Hope, and the Human Spirit

“Today’s problem, of course, is a decisive acceleration toward a new heat extreme. That problem is in fact two separate problems, both deriving from an overreliance on carbon. We authors are convinced (perhaps optimistically) that both are caused by, and ultimately solvable with, chemistry—if its full capacities can be unlocked using AI.”
― Henry A. Kissinger, Genesis: Artificial Intelligence, Hope, and the Human Spirit

“Scientists wielding the biotechnology known as CRISPR-Cas9—and another variation called prime editing—begin by identifying a specific genetic sequence that they would like to manipulate. A predesigned strand of RNA can then guide another special enzyme to a targeted piece of DNA on that sequence, opening it to make the necessary changes and corrections. Using such tools, and their successors, it may become possible to conquer not only our deficiencies but mortality itself.”
― Henry A. Kissinger, Genesis: Artificial Intelligence, Hope, and the Human Spirit

“AIs might become advanced health-monitoring systems, capable of identifying and neutralizing infectious diseases before they evolve into planetary pandemics.”
― Henry A. Kissinger, Genesis: Artificial Intelligence, Hope, and the Human Spirit

“AI is likely to produce breakthroughs not only in the engineering of additional proteins, including new hormones, enzymes, and antibodies, but also in identifying the molecular causes of various diseases and developing potential treatments for them.”
― Henry A. Kissinger, Genesis: Artificial Intelligence, Hope, and the Human Spirit

“Though over the past two centuries we have made crude and incomplete attempts to decipher and control the code of life, our ability to proceed with greater precision and intent has been impeded by a single missing ingredient: namely, an intelligence capable of understanding that code at a sufficient level of detail. Now, propelled by the emergence of an intelligence that far exceeds our own, we are converging upon a revolution in biology that may change our conception of human life.”
― Henry A. Kissinger, Genesis: Artificial Intelligence, Hope, and the Human Spirit

“We already have a prototype of how people live when they can have what they want without working. We call them the rich and the retired.”
― Henry A. Kissinger, Genesis: Artificial Intelligence, Hope, and the Human Spirit

“Ultimately, if we establish the needed systems for distribution, connection, participation, and education, humans—empowered and inspired by AI—may continue working not for pay but for pleasure and pride.”
― Henry A. Kissinger, Genesis: Artificial Intelligence, Hope, and the Human Spirit

“Sports and games that push the human to the limit could increase in prevalence and quality. Art could flourish, for the ring of the authentic is likely to retain its charm. Universities historically committed themselves to giving their students an equal introduction both to the sciences and to the humanities.16 We believe these quintessentially human endeavors, each in its own way a “quest for meaning” (to borrow a phrase from one spiritual leader),17 will if anything expand.”
― Henry A. Kissinger, Genesis: Artificial Intelligence, Hope, and the Human Spirit

“Sports and games that push the human to the limit could increase in prevalence and quality. Art could flourish, for the ring of the authentic is likely to retain its charm.”
― Henry A. Kissinger, Genesis: Artificial Intelligence, Hope, and the Human Spirit

“profound transformation in the overall standard of collective human life, and in the equality of individual lives across race, gender, nationality, place of birth, and family background. An equalization of the cost of intelligence, distributed across the globe, could bring about a level playing field that has never before existed.”
― Henry A. Kissinger, Genesis: Artificial Intelligence, Hope, and the Human Spirit

“the authors of this book believe that AI could conceivably be harnessed to generate a new baseline of human wealth and well-being—and just that possibility itself demands that we make a start in this direction. Moreover, we are confident that if such an economic and political scheme comes to pass, it would at least ease if not eliminate the strains of labor, class, and conflict that previously have torn humanity apart.”
― Henry A. Kissinger, Genesis: Artificial Intelligence, Hope, and the Human Spirit

“Today the preponderance of benefits of, and almost exclusive control over, advanced AIs has accrued to extremely few individuals. Will they give up their advantages? If they do—if and when more benefits and more control come to be shared at the national level—then calls for the globalization of both will begin immediately.”
― Henry A. Kissinger, Genesis: Artificial Intelligence, Hope, and the Human Spirit

“In a post-AI world, therefore, perhaps the solution would be, as Altman suggests, to tax the two “assets that will make up most of the value in [the] world,” namely, companies—especially those that build, maintain, and use AI—and land, which still remains fixed”
― Henry A. Kissinger, Genesis: Artificial Intelligence, Hope, and the Human Spirit

“The most familiar arrangement of human civilizations is that of the Westphalian system as conventionally understood. The idea of the sovereign nation-state, however, is only a few centuries old, having emerged from treaties that are collectively known as the Peace of Westphalia in the mid-seventeenth century. It is not the preordained unit of social organization, and it may not be suited for the age of AI. Indeed, as mass disinformation and automated discrimination trigger a loss of faith in that arrangement, AI may pose an inherent challenge to the power of national governments.”
― Henry A. Kissinger, Genesis: Artificial Intelligence, Hope, and the Human Spirit

“The most familiar arrangement of human civilizations is that of the Westphalian system as conventionally understood. The idea of the sovereign nation-state, however, is only a few centuries old, having emerged from treaties that are collectively known as the Peace of Westphalia in the mid-seventeenth century.”
― Henry A. Kissinger, Genesis: Artificial Intelligence, Hope, and the Human Spirit

“we believe there will be not just one supreme AI but rather multiple instantiations of superior intelligence in the world.”
― Henry A. Kissinger, Genesis: Artificial Intelligence, Hope, and the Human Spirit

“Historically, the very basis of world order has been maintained by the ceaseless pursuit of a delicate equilibrium of balanced forces. Here, by contrast, nation-states would be pursuing a hegemonic stasis largely unfamiliar to human practice. The dominant bloc of states likely would be the original creators of AI systems and the suppliers of their most critical components, as well as the producers of the talent to develop and refine them. The nondominant majority might be relegated to the status of tributaries, supplying data and other goods and repaid with some level of access to AI’s discoveries, governance systems, and defenses.”
― Henry A. Kissinger, Genesis: Artificial Intelligence, Hope, and the Human Spirit

“A determined or desperate actor with secondary but sizable strength will be vigilant in the watch for superior AIs. If that secondary actor perceives—even mistakenly—that the dominant other is within grasp of a totalizing capability, it may launch preemptive electronic or physical strikes, setting off a cycle of unimaginable escalation and retaliation and the spiraling possibility of mutual destruction.”
― Henry A. Kissinger, Genesis: Artificial Intelligence, Hope, and the Human Spirit

“larger model is not necessarily superior across all contexts and may not always prevail over smaller, inferior models deployed at scale. Smaller and more specialized AI machines might operate like a swarm of drones against an aircraft carrier—unable to destroy it, but sufficient to neutralize much of its capacity.”
― Henry A. Kissinger, Genesis: Artificial Intelligence, Hope, and the Human Spirit

“a larger model is not necessarily superior across all contexts and may not always prevail over smaller, inferior models deployed at scale.”
― Henry A. Kissinger, Genesis: Artificial Intelligence, Hope, and the Human Spirit

“Assessing the state of the competition will be even more challenging. Already the largest AI models are being trained on secure networks disconnected from the rest of the internet. Some executives believe that AI development will itself sooner or later migrate to impenetrable bunkers whose supercomputers are powered with nuclear reactors.3 Data centers are even now being built on the bottom of the ocean floor.4 Soon they could be sequestered in orbits around Earth.”
― Henry A. Kissinger, Genesis: Artificial Intelligence, Hope, and the Human Spirit