"Rather than questioning the character of thinking machines, futurist Amy Webb turns a critical eye on the humans behind the computers. With AI's development overwhelmingly driven by nine tech powerhouses, she asks: Is it possible for the technology to serve the best interests of everyone?"―Wired "Webb's assessments are based on analyses of patent filings, policy briefings, interviews and other sources. She paints vivid pictures of how AI could benefit the average person, via precision medicine or smarter dating apps...Her forecasts are provocative and unsettlingly plausible."―Science News "Instead of predicting the future, Webb lays out scenarios for optimistic, pragmatic, and catastrophic outcomes -- all extrapolated from current facts. However impractical you may find the idea of a common Apple-Amazon operating system named Applezon, considering potential scenarios is a fantastically healthy exercise, because anyone who tells you they know how AI is going to turn out is lying."―VentureBeat

Today's leading minds talk AI with host Byron Reese Episode 94 of Voices in AI features Byron speaking with fellow futurist and author Amy Webb on the nature of artificial intelligence and the morality and ethics tied to its study. Listen to this episode or read the full transcript at www.VoicesinAI.com Byron Reese: This is Voices in AI brought to you by Gigaom, and I'm Byron Reese. My guest is Amy Webb. She is a quantitative futurist.

Webb observes that artificial intelligence is currently evolving in a handful of companies in the United States and China. She worries that innovation in the United States may lead to social changes that we may not ultimately like; in China, innovation may end up serving the geopolitical goals of the Chinese government with some uncomfortable foreign policy implications. Webb's book is a reminder that artificial intelligence does not evolve in a vacuum--research and progress takes place in an institutional context. This is a wide-ranging conversation about the implications and possible futures of a world where artificial intelligence is increasingly part of our lives.

This week, President Donald Trump signed a new executive order on artificial intelligence and the Pentagon declassified part of its AI strategy. Neither was a first attempt at a national AI strategy. In 2016, the Obama administration published a comprehensive plan on the future of AI, which never had time to gain the momentum it needed in government. The Pentagon has been researching intelligent machines for the better part of 60 years, and only recently did it come to a consensus: Our future wars will be fought in code, using data and algorithms as powerful weapons. Using AI techniques, a military can "win" by destabilizing an economy rather than demolishing countrysides and city centers. From that perspective, and given China's unified march advancing artificial intelligence, China is dangerously far ahead of the West.

CNET and CBS News Senior Producer Dan Patterson sat down with the Future Today Institute founder and quantitative futurist Amy Webb to discuss what artificial intelligence and data actually are, and how they work. The following is an edited transcript of the interview. I say AI because that's the thing that is on everybody's tongue right now. Although you'll also say that it's quantum, and we'll get there as well. Amy Webb: Should we talk about what AI is?

On December 6 and 7, academics, medical professionals, even professional humorists, among others shared their expertise and vision for how technology is changing the world, and how we live in that world, at the Future Today Summit. Founder and CEO of the Future Today Institute Amy Webb, who is an adjunct professor on futures forecasting at the New York University Stern School of Business, spoke to IBM (a sponsor of the Future Today Summit) about what it means to be a futurist, how futurists predicted fake news, and skills we all need in the future. When and why did you decide to call yourself a futurist? Amy Webb: Fifteen years ago, I was a journalist based in Tokyo, reporting and writing about the future of technology, the economy and digital culture. I'd had grown restless, though – my reporting was inherently a reflection on the past.