āAI will kill everyoneā is not an argument. Itās a worldview.
While running on fumes early this week, I worked closely with the brilliant Sigal Samuel, one of journalismās smartest interpreters of AI, on this fantastic essay thinking through the claims made in the controversial, buzzy new book If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies. Thereās an increasingly polarized debate over the future of artificial intelligence, with one side prophesizing that AI will kill us all, and the other arguing that itāll just be a normal technology like any other. But the best way of looking at it, Sigal argues, may be something else entirely. If you want to better understand the weird, esoteric, sometimes absurd-sounding discourse about how AI could transform the world, and why it matters, this is the piece to read.
š§ How much free speech is too much?
There are few things Iām sure of in life, but having immigrated to the US as a child from an authoritarian country where everyone is miserable, this is one of them: We do not want to become one of those places. As terrifying as the current political moment is, perhaps one real silver lining is that itās opened up a vigorous national conversation about the meaning and value of free speech. This enlightening conversation on the Gray Area podcast, about the history of that cherished ideal, could not have been better timed.
A century ago, cars remade America. Autonomous vehicles could do it again.
The benefits and drawbacks of self-driving cars can be a tricky thing to reason about because, on one hand, they promise to save tens of thousands of lives a year from one of Americaās top causes of premature death: car crashes. But seen in another light, they also have the potential to lock in and turbocharge the worst mistakes of American urban planning of the last century ā the destruction of our cities to make way for cars. This smart, wonky story by top transportation journalist David Zipper explains why, and what cities can do to prepare for the coming riptide of autonomous vehicles.
The case for caring about shrimp
This is the sort of piece youāll only find in Voxās Future Perfect, our section devoted to the worldās biggest, most neglected moral problems. And it is kind of uncategorizable. Come for the provocative thought experiment about billions of tiny crustaceans, stay for the surprisingly grounded, stirring dose of moral philosophy.
How to rediscover your creativity in 3 simple steps
If your brain feels stuck in doomscroll mode, this lovely piece is the gentle nudge you need to invite joy and imagination back into your free time.
