Dissatisfied with the widespread cliché comparing the importance and potential ubiquity of artificial intelligence with electricity, Ben Buchanan and Andrew Imbrie have set out to find a better metaphor. The problem with the electricity analogy, they contend, is that after a couple of centuries working out what it is and what it does, we’ve harnessed it in such a way that it has become a potent force for universal good, safely and cheaply working its magic behind the scenes to deliver our modern world on demand and in a reliable way.
The same can’t be said for artificial intelligence, say the pair, who having completed ‘The New Fire: War, Peace, and Democracy in the Age of AI’ (The MIT Press, $29.95, ISBN 0262046541) now hold senior posts in the United States government: Buchanan as assistant director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and Imbrie in the State Department.
These brief CV references are served up to acknowledge their...