The AI question we should be asking

LOS ANGELES/LUCERNE: Although our age is defined by humanity's disproportionate influence on the planet, we ourselves are undergoing profound changes. Tasks that previously could be accomplished only through human labor are increasingly being performed by machines, including many tasks that rely on creativity. Far from a distant theoretical possibility, artificial intelligence (AI) has arrived — and it is here to stay.

In considering AI's potential, it can be tempting to channel the techno-optimism of the 1990s when IBM's Deep Blue triumphed over the world chess champion, unleashing a wave of interdisciplinary interest in how AI might be deployed and commercialized in other domains. But it can also be tempting to adopt the opposing view and insist that AI will become an intolerable threat to most people's livelihoods and perhaps even to human existence itself.