Over the past two weeks, a firestorm has erupted over claims from AI researchers—and leaders of the companies they work for—that artificial intelligence is on a breakneck path toward developing the potential to destroy humanity. The technology, they say, will soon have a mind of its own, ruthlessly efficient but utterly amoral, at which point it might hack nuclear launch codes or allow nefarious actors to produce biological or chemical weapons. In response, some AI entrepreneurs have called for a slowdown in development and the introduction of tighter government regulation.
Some experts and commentators consider these fears overblown. Personally, I am a skeptic of the doomsday scenarios; we’ve adapted to technology before, and we inevitably will do so again. But no matter what you think about whether AI will imminently end our lives, there is one thing I can say for certain: It does threaten to steal the quality of our lives—and by extension, our happiness.
Take, as just one example, what is already happening in one activity we have all taken for granted: writing.
Read more
