The Promise and the Threat of AI

As computers gain speed and accomplish dazzling feats like defeating the world's masters at games of chess and Go, some of the planet's brightest minds -- Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking among them -- warn that we human beings may find ourselves obsolete. Further, a kind of artificial intelligence arms race may come to dominate geopolitics, rewarding the owners of the best AI mining the biggest pools of "big data" -- most likely, as a result of its sheer size, China. Or consider another dire consequence: As AI-driven robots replace more and more workers, from truck drivers to insurance adjusters, loan officers and any number of other white-collar occupations, unemployment will rise. Should we imagine a utopia filled with gratifying leisure activities or a feudal dystopia in which a wealthy elite hold the few precious jobs unsuitable for computers? But the terms of the debate thus far are confused. The recent advances in AI are impressive, and the future prospects for the technology are truly amazing.