Only a handful of people grasp the magnitude of the changes that are about to hit us. They’re exciting – and terrifying, says playwright Daniel Kehlmann
I’m not, and you probably aren’t either, but panic would be more appropriate than the calm with which we face the tsunami already visible on the horizon, or to quote the AI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner: “Right now, there are perhaps a few hundred people that have situational awareness.” One of them was the recently deceased Daniel Dennett, one of the most influential thinkers in the English-speaking world, co-creator of the modern philosophy of mind, who at an informal meeting of experts, where I, though not an expert, was allowed to be present, urged us all to do everything we could to warn decision makers. The biggest digital growth market in the coming years will probably be artificial friends and partners.
