Friends who know my reading habits and hyper-fixations often ask what is preoccupying my mind these days. The Iran war and its consequences are now a lived reality. But that preoccupies me no more than any ordinary citizen or journalist. What dominates my thoughts is a hard question, one I have discussed here more than once and which is only becoming more pressing: our coexistence with advanced machines.

Its urgency grows every time I read tech news or a book on the subject, or talk to friends in Silicon Valley. Progress on the AI front is breathtaking. Both acceleration and complexity are making AI more agentic and capable. This may have led Nvidia's CEO, Jensen Huang, to claim that we may already have achieved Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), a theoretical advanced form of AI that can understand, learn, and apply knowledge across any intellectual task at a level equal to human capabilities. It does not pose any direct threat at this time. Granted, in their irrational exuberance, some early-adopter companies may replace their workforce with AI, but given the high cost of tokens and other expenses, they may live to regret it. It becomes a challenge when either of two things happens: economies of scale in the field, or the emergence of Artificial Superintelligence (ASI), a theoretical stage where AI surpasses human cognitive abilities in every field and can exist without human assistance.

An ASI can independently design, replicate and upgrade itself. If it emerges, it can have significant direct and indirect impacts. Indirectly, it can displace all jobs. Since by this time it might be growing exponentially smarter, it may also directly rise and overthrow........

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