AI

Turning language over to machines is the equivalent of a bird clipping its own wings.

When artificial intelligence is used to diagnose cancer or automate soul-crushing tasks that require vapid toiling, it makes us more human and should be celebrated. But when it sucks out the core process of advanced cognition, cutting-edge tools can become an existential peril. In the formative stages of education, we are now at risk of stripping a... See more

we need not retreat into the well-trodden trenches of luddites vs. tech bros. There’s a smarter way of understanding the rise of LLMs while preserving our critical thinking, all while shining a crucial, easily overshadowed light on how our ability to reason with language is the essence of humanity.

Although we shouldn’t wait for this to happen, it’s interesting to think about whether artificial intelligence would ever identify inequity and try to reduce it. Do you need to have a sense of morality in order to see inequity, or would a purely rational AI also see it? If it did recognize inequity, what would it suggest that we do about it?

Even for those in the harder sciences, the necessity of becoming competent in social thinking and philosophical reasoning has never been more urgent. We live in an era of unprecedented tools—the first generation with the ability to fundamentally change what it means to be us—and those with the technological know-how also need to know why .

We can. ... See more