Annals of Artificial Intelligence As it’s currently imagined, the technology promises to concentrate wealth and disempower workers. Is an alternative possible? May 4, 2023 Illustration by Berke Yazicioglu When we talk about artificial intelligence, we rely on metaphor, as we always do when dealing…

I met Geoffrey Hinton at his house on a pretty street in north London just four days before the bombshell announcement that he is quitting Google. Hinton is a pioneer of deep learning who helped develop some of the most important techniques at the heart of modern artificial intelligence, but after a…

My first job was as a paper boy: The job was remarkably analog: a bundle of newspapers would be dropped off at my house, I would wrap them in rubber-bands (or plastic bags if it were raining), load them up in a canvas sack, and set off on my bike; once a month my parents would drive me around to…

The stunning capabilities of ChatGPT, the chatbot from startup OpenAI, has triggered a surge of new interest and investment in artificial intelligence. But late last week, OpenAI’s CEO warned that the research strategy that birthed the bot is played out. It's unclear exactly where future advances…

Annals of Artificial Intelligence There are ways of controlling the new technology—but first we have to stop mythologizing it. April 20, 2023 Illustration by Nicholas Konrad / The New Yorker As a computer scientist, I don’t like the term “A.I.” In fact, I think it’s misleading—maybe even a little…