The Water Economist

  Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Responsible AI Every decision to entrust AI with greater responsibility carries a human obligation: to understand what could go wrong, who could be affected, and who will answer for the consequences. The same obligation applies to the money, land, electricity, and water we commit to its development. AI’s promise is immense. Realizing that promise responsibly requires us to consider its benefits, risks, and costs together, while preserving our ability to question, intervene, and change course. This is the starting point for a more useful conversation about AI. Debates about its future often settle into two familiar positions. One anticipates increasingly powerful systems escaping human control and threatening our survival. The other dismisses such concerns as speculation and assumes society will adapt as it has to earlier technologies. Neither position provides an adequate basis for making decisions today. Catastrophe is not inevitable, and s...