Apocalypse or golden opportunity? Why the AI freakout might be useful

I was profoundly struck by the Wall Street Journal’s reporting from Amrith Ramkumar, Angel Au-Yeung and Lindsay Ellis on the week AI anxiety went mainstream. Without downplaying legitimate concerns about the havoc that new technologies such as AI can cause, history offers some interesting analogies. Historically, new technologies that dramatically increased the speed, scale, or autonomy of human capability have triggered intense anxieties. Disruptive technologies such as AI, in the Sc...