Will A.I. Harm Us? Better to Ask How We'll Reckon With Our Hybrid Nature

Little Lewis, my son, I see some evidence that you have the ability to learn science, number and proportions, and I recognize your special desire to learn about the astrolabe…

— Chaucer’s Astrolabe Treatise, 1391.

t what point did we create an artificial intelligence? Was it when we first chiseled on rocks the memory of our debts? Was it that point when we enhanced reasoning by exploring possibilities in the arena of a game? Or when we solved a problem of inference beyond our merely fleshy ability to calculate? The dream of a fully autonomous artificial intelligence, stuff of infinite science-fiction prognostication, has blinded us to the incremental nature of artificial intelligence. The deep intellectual and ethical question facing our species is not how we’ll prevent an artificial superintelligence