Three AI Futures

The present array of AI and social paradoxes could be described by a future historian in the following way: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way." Do these words sound familiar? Charles Dickens opened his novel A Tale of Two Cities in 1859 with them. The turmoil and promises of AI have generated a confusion of uncertainty about the future. Will AI take our jobs?