Stop Choosing Sides on AI

Steven Levy, the longtime editor of Wired, edited one of my earliest articles. In it, I explored historical moral panics that came with emerging technologies: the radio would destroy intelligence as fewer people would read newspapers; the telephone would destroy personal relationships as people wouldn't spend time together in person; social media would further push us into isolation and destroy meaningful connections.We're facing a similar moral panic today surrounding artificial intelligence. The fear stems from the near-limitless power and revenue of tech companies at the expense of stolen work and potential job losses. What I failed to address in that original article nearly 15 years ago is that both sides of the argument can be true.The radio did lead to a decline in reading newspapers while also opening up fresh forms of sharing news and entertainment.The telephone did lead to teenagers spending more time talking on the phone than in person, while also connecting people across…