We shouldn’t be afraid of the big good AI
THERE’S BEEN ONLY one point in my life when I was scared of AI. That’s when I read that Stephen Hawking feared for our future, sending chills down my spine with this paragraph: “One can imagine [AI] outsmarting financial markets, out-inventing human researchers, out-manipulating human leaders, and developing weapons we cannot even understand. Whereas the short-term impact of AI depends on who controls it, the long-term impact depends on whether it can be controlled at all.” Hawking was building an argument that we need regulation and oversight of AI developments, and when it comes to military, financial and healthcare applications I couldn’t agree more. Fortunately, in the mundane areas of helping us use our time more wisely, the free market is pretty good at keeping everyone on the right course. There…