What made it most depressing, upon replaying the conversation afterwards, was that he thought he was describing utopia.<\/p>\n
A few months ago, I met a billionaire AI tech bro (to use the accepted terminology). For half an hour this man \u2014 our terms of journalistic engagement mean I cannot say who \u2014 outlined his vision of the future. It was a future without disease, starvation or want. It was also a future without human dignity, struggle, achievement or purpose. Our conversation was, perhaps, the bleakest half hour of my life.<\/p>\n
This week, as every week, another pillar of human exceptionalism crumbled. The International Mathematical Olympiad<\/a>, the hardest mathematical contest in the world, convened. Alongside the student mathletes, OpenAI and Google entered. Both reached the highest grade: gold. Ten years ago, you wouldn\u2019t have backed AI to do a GCSE. Now it can answer questions so difficult only a few dozen kids take part each year.<\/p>\n I know the riposte. Humans always fear machines. Fretting about this is like worrying that a calculator is better at long division. So, it\u2019ll be fine. Like the Luddites we rage against job losses. When the economy settles, we find we are richer, healthier and have better jobs that better use our uniquely human skills.<\/p>\n AI won\u2019t take your job, goes the mantra, but if you don\u2019t get with the revolution, someone using AI will. My response? You\u2019re not listening.<\/p>\n