Contemplating possible future scenarios should be left to the field of philosophy, not to futurology – or so claims Luciano Floridi in this somewhat harsh but fair editor letter. Floridi examines so-called Artificial Intelligence (AI) winters and their impact on the development of AI. AI winters are periods where the hype for AI wanes and often the result of disillusionment when – inevitably – promises concerning AI applications fail to deliver. The drawbacks of hype for AI are twofold: on the one hand, it makes people more skeptical towards useful applications, and on the other hand alarmism blinds people to the actual risks associated with AI applications. Floridi mentions these instances of alarmism during his discussion of hype, seemingly categorizing alarmism as an instance of hype rather than a different variant of an exaggerated claim.

Artificial intelligence is the rare kind of issue that can turn an event as broad and all-encompassing as Davos on its head. This year, AI grabbed hold of the Swiss outpost and supercharged the conversation with a palpable shift in tone. In just one day, more than 20 news dispatches about AI came out of Davos in Bloomberg alone. It's not hard to understand our AI obsession: For years, many of Silicon Valley's highest-profile leaders, from Elon Musk and Marc Benioff to Bill Gates, have issued warnings about coming waves of automation, saying that they could threaten our jobs and ways of life. This year's World Economic Forum gathering in Davos included some of that alarmism.

It turns out I'm not the only one who thinks AI alarmism is a bit out of hand. The ITIF Luddite Award nominations include "alarmists, even including respected luminaries such as Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking, touting an artificial intelligence apocalypse." Opinions are stewing on both sides of the issue, with Gizmodo writer George Dvorsky saying it's not right to be branded a Luddite for warning against potential perils. Like most controversies, the differences are smaller than the similarities, since both groups contend that they are promoting a better future for humanity. The real question is from where does your faith in humanity stem?