Do the benefits of artificial intelligence outweigh the risks?

This essay is the winner of The Economist's Open Future essay competition in the category of Open Progress, responding to the question: "Do the benefits of artificial intelligence outweigh the risks?" The winner is Frank L. Ruta, 24 years old, from America. Upgrade your inbox and get our Daily Dispatch and Editor's Picks. Towards the end of the second world war, a group of scientists in America working to develop an atomic bomb for the Manhattan Project warned that using the weapon would inevitably lead to a geopolitical landscape characterised by a nuclear arms race. This would force America, they said, to outpace other nations in building up nuclear armaments. They recommended that if the military did choose to use the weapon, an international effort for nuclear non-proliferation should promptly be established.