Genesis: Artificial Intelligence, Hope and the Human Spirit

A few short years ago, artificial intelligence (AI) inhabited a small corner of the public debate. Today, following rapid advances in technology, AI is a front-page topic of global news outlets and an issue on the minds of leaders in science, business, and politics the world over. New Al and human responses to them could transform the nature of truth, the human relationship to reality, the exploration of knowledge, and the physical evolution of humanity, the conduct of diplomacy and war, and the international system. These are the crucial issues of the coming decades, and they ought to be the guiding concerns of leaders in every arena.The new capabilities of AI today, impressive as they are now, will appear weak in hindsight and its powers are increasing at an accelerating rate. Powers we have not yet imagined are set to infuse our daily lives. Future Al will facilitate enormous advances in education, medicine, and basic sciences. Al could discover new medicines to cure pernicious dise