Hitting the Books: What do we want our AI-powered future to look like?

Once the shining city on a hill that the rest of the world looked to for leadership and guidance, America's moral high ground has steadily eroded in recent decades -- and rapidly accelerated since Trump's corrupt, self-dealing tenure in the White House began. Our corporations, and the technologies they develop, are certainly no better. Amazon treats its workers like indentured servants at best, Facebook algorithms actively promotes genocide overseas and fascism here in the States, and Google doesn't even try to live up to its own maxim of "don't be evil" anymore. In her upcoming book, The Power of Ethics: How to Make Good Choices in a Complicated World, Susan Liautaud, Chair of Council of the London School of Economics and Political Science, lays out an ambitious four-step plan to recalibrate our skewed moral compass illustrating how effective ethical decision making can be used to counter damage done by those in power and create a better, fairer and more equitable world for everyone. In the excerpt below, Liautaud explores the "blurring boundaries" of human-AI relations and how we can ensure that this emerging technology is used for humanity's benefit rather than just becoming another Microsoft Tay.