Mustafa Suleyman: Controlling AI is the challenge of our time'

"Over the past decadeand especially in the last five yearsartificial intelligence has advanced at a breakneck pace. New AI applications appear daily. Nvidia, whose chips power this revolution, is now the world's most valuable company, and the seven giants known as Big Tech have become the economic engine of the United States. Some warn this boom could mirror the dot-com bubble, but few doubt the profound impact AI will have on human life in the decades ahead."

"When he joined DeepMind in 2010 as head of product and later oversaw applied AI, the field had been inching forward quietly, almost demurely, for years. Then DeepMind delivered what once seemed out of reach. AlphaGo, the early AI system that stunned the world by defeating Go champion Lee Sedol 41, showed how neural networks combined with large-scale reinforcement learning could generate strategies no human had imagined. It was a true watershed moment."

"The biggest challenge, he argues, is the sweeping societal transformation triggered by the convergence of AI, robotics, and synthetic biology, from the future of work and human relationships to the defining issues of our time: climate change, health systems, biogenetics, and geopolitical rivalry. These ideas shaped The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-First Century's Greatest Dilemma (with Michael Bhaskar as a co-author), his compelling and cautiously optimistic history of technology's rise and the storms ahead."

Artificial intelligence has accelerated dramatically in recent years, producing daily new applications and making semiconductor firms central to the global economy. Landmark systems demonstrated how neural networks with large-scale reinforcement learning can generate strategies beyond human intuition. The convergence of AI with robotics and synthetic biology promises sweeping societal transformation affecting work, interpersonal relationships, climate response, health systems, biogenetics, and geopolitical competition. The technological wave carries vast promise and simultaneously introduces urgent risks. If left unmanaged, powerful AI-driven changes could exacerbate social conflict, deepen nihilism, and destabilize institutions, creating an urgent need for robust governance and policy responses.

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