AI’s biggest secret: we can shape it

Abstract

Tech leaders and industry insiders are giddy with excitement about the advances under way in artificial intelligence, whether due to the scaling up of existing models and functionalities, new reasoning models, promises of capable AI assistants, or entirely new, emergent capabilities.

Many hopes—and some fears—are centred on “powerful AI” or artificial general intelligence (AGI), which will be reached when AI becomes as smart as humans in almost every way. Some view AGI as an inexorable step towards unprecedented abundance, while others are concerned that such powerful AI could turn against humanity or, at the very least, create dangers for us. Almost everyone in the industry and many in tech journalism see this future as inevitable.

There is one word missing from much of this discussion: choice.