High-level problem-solving isn't just for humans anymore. As computers gain speed and accomplish dazzling feats like defeating the world's masters at games of chess and Go, some of the planet's brightest minds -- Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking among them -- warn that we human beings may find ourselves obsolete. Further, a kind of artificial intelligence arms race may come to dominate geopolitics, rewarding the owners of the best AI mining the biggest pools of "big data" -- most likely, as a result of its sheer size, China.
Or consider another dire consequence: As AI-driven robots replace more and more workers, from truck drivers to insurance adjusters, unemployment will rise. How will economies adjust? Should we imagine a utopia filled with gratifying leisure activities or a feudal dystopia in which a wealthy elite hold the few precious jobs unsuitable for computers?
The stakes are high. But the terms of the debate thus...
