Second Thoughts

And why “Am I Stronger Yet?” is now “Second Thoughts”

It’s Impossible To Make Sense of What’s Being Written About AI. Pick any relevant topic, and you’ll find an equally confusing barrage of contradictory takes. There is an enormous amount of good work going into analysis of AI capabilities, impacts, and policy solutions. But these questions are so complex, evolving so rapidly, and tied into so many subjects of expertise, that it’s impossible to keep up.

This Impacts Everything
AI sits at an unfortunate intersection. It’s moving too quickly for expert consensus to emerge or laypeople to keep up, and it’s simultaneously very high stakes.

The potential applications of AI are so numerous they’re hard to even summarize. It could revolutionize health care, turbocharge the economy, and provide a personalized full-time tutor to every child… if we don’t cripple it with unnecessary restrictions. It could also disrupt labor markets, unleash a wave of bioterrorism, and enable surveillance states the likes of which Orwell could never have imagined… if we don’t find ways to head that off.

We’ll be focusing on four broad topics:

• Timelines & Capabilities – how rapidly will AI development advance?
• Economic Impacts – how quickly will AI be adopted, and what impact will this have on the economy? How can we ensure AI creates broad-based economic benefits?
• Democracy and Governance – how must democratic and other key institutions adapt to the challenges and opportunities that AI brings?
• Realizing Benefits – what can we do to unlock and facilitate adoption of beneficial uses of AI?