The right to resist optimization

Audrey Tang, Cyber Ambassador

An abstract image featuring a jagged, wavy tear or edge dividing two shades of pink, with a textured darker pink area on the left and a smooth light pink area on the right.

Will AI replace workers? Not if we build it right

MIT professor Daron Acemoglu argues that AI is chasing the wrong goal. Instead of replacing workers, it should make them better at their jobs.

Daron Acemoglu, Economist

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AI is changing what we can do. Who we become is still our choice

To understand AI’s effect on moral character, ethicist Kwame Anthony Appiah goes back to John Stuart Mill, and the idea that people are shaped by their choices.

Kwame Anthony Appiah, philosopher

A pink-toned image of a round vase with five long-stemmed flowers. The flower heads have been replaced by white gear shapes, giving the arrangement a surreal and abstract appearance.

AI will change work. The biggest loss won’t be economic

Philosopher Elizabeth Anderson on why work gives life purpose, mastery, and autonomy, and why a future without it isn’t the liberation it seems.

Elizabeth Anderson, Philosopher

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The intelligence we choose

Technology, when built with intention and humility, is not opposed to humanity. It’s an expression of us.

Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI

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Does AI have rights?

ChatGPT said no. Claude wasn’t sure. Harvard’s Cass R. Sunstein argues that the only thing that could give AI rights is still missing.

Cass R. Sunstein, Professor

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Writers agree: AI isn’t a novelist. So why is this author interested?

Naomi Alderman, Novelist

Current issue
PEOPLE & TECHNOLOGY

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AI was built on human intelligence. Nature has more to teach

Six hundred million years of thinking happened without us. Writer James bridle on what can an octopus, a spider and a flower tell us about the nature of intelligence.

James Bridle, WRITER

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Governing agentic AI: From human control to human becoming

Most AI governance is built on Western assumptions. Philosopher Pak-Hang Wong draws on Confucianism to propose a new foundation.

Pak-Hang Wong, Philosopher and ethicist

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The architect as humanist builder: why AI can’t replace craft

A conversation with Amaury Greig, a partner at Renzo Piano Building Workshop on the original human-centered design: architecture.

Amaury Greig, Architect

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What children can do that AI can’t

Psychologist Alison Gopnik tells three stories about intelligence — a golem, a pot of stone soup, and a digital child — to explain what AI still can’t do.

Alison Gopnik, psychologist

A pink and white image with handwritten text: “I’m 17 years old. What can you tell me about love,” “What is the point in life?” and “How do I not have my heart broken?”.

Nick Cave on grief, creation, and what AI can never write

“To love the things you once wished to destroy”: musician and songwriter Nick Cave introduces a selection of correspondence from The Red Hand Files.

Nick Cave, Musician

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Jonathan Nolan co-created Westworld and co-wrote Interstellar. How does he see AI?

Screenwriter Jonathan Nolan and author Will Storr discuss what AI gets right about stories, and what it’s missing.

Jonathan Nolan, Will Storr

A person with long hair sits at a tilt-top desk, drawing on a digital tablet with a stylus. They look focused and determined. The image is rendered in black-and-white sketch style.

Amy Kurzweil on the value of creative process

What’s left when the draft is gone?

Amy Kurzweil, Cartoonist

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AI could transform healthcare and education. Why aren’t we more ambitious?

Sarah Guo, Investor

Recent Field Notes

An open door against a yellow wall with labels indicating scale sizes ranging from 1B parameters to 400B parameters.

Deborah Morgan

You are not your AI’s mother

Language matters, and the words that we use to describe the relationship with models shouldn’t be the same as one of the most deeply human connections.

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Anabelle Nicoud, Bea Costa Gomes, Naomi Alderman

We are always looking for something to talk back to us

Naomi Alderman on AI, science fiction and why apocalyptic predictions and end of the world makes for a compelling story

$Light refracting through a glass prism, creating a spectrum of color across a dark surface.$

Connie Hsueh, Researcher – MAI Futures Team

Superbreakthroughs: How to engineer a brighter future with AI & science

Presenting two essays, ”What do we mean by AI for Science?” and ”Superbreakthroughs: Four vignettes of how AI will transform the way we live” that examine the present and future promises of AI & science.

EXPLORE

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LATEST

The architect as humanist builder: why AI can’t replace craft

The right to resist optimization

Will AI replace workers? Not if we build it right

AI is changing what we can do. Who we become is still our choice

AI will change work. The biggest loss won’t be economic

The intelligence we choose

Does AI have rights?

Writers agree: AI isn’t a novelist. So why is this author interested?

Current issue
PEOPLE & TECHNOLOGY

AI was built on human intelligence. Nature has more to teach

Governing agentic AI: From human control to human becoming

The architect as humanist builder: why AI can’t replace craft

What children can do that AI can’t

Nick Cave on grief, creation, and what AI can never write

Jonathan Nolan co-created Westworld and co-wrote Interstellar. How does he see AI?

Amy Kurzweil on the value of creative process

AI could transform healthcare and education. Why aren’t we more ambitious?

Recent Field Notes

You are not your AI’s mother

We are always looking for something to talk back to us

Superbreakthroughs: How to engineer a brighter future with AI & science

EXPLORE

LINKS

LATEST

The architect as humanist builder: why AI can’t replace craft

The right to resist optimization

Will AI replace workers? Not if we build it right

AI is changing what we can do. Who we become is still our choice

AI will change work. The biggest loss won’t be economic

The intelligence we choose

Does AI have rights?

Writers agree: AI isn’t a novelist. So why is this author interested?

Current issue PEOPLE & TECHNOLOGY

AI was built on human intelligence. Nature has more to teach

Governing agentic AI: From human control to human becoming

The architect as humanist builder: why AI can’t replace craft

What children can do that AI can’t

Nick Cave on grief, creation, and what AI can never write

Jonathan Nolan co-created Westworld and co-wrote Interstellar. How does he see AI?

Amy Kurzweil on the value of creative process

AI could transform healthcare and education. Why aren’t we more ambitious?

Recent Field Notes

You are not your AI’s mother

We are always looking for something to talk back to us

Superbreakthroughs: How to engineer a brighter future with AI & science

Current issue
PEOPLE & TECHNOLOGY