There is little consensus on the future of artificial intelligence. But that hasn’t dampened the euphoria over it. Nearly 400 million users — more than the population of the U.S. — are expected to have taken advantage of new AI applications over the last five years, with an astounding 100 million rushing to do so in the first 60 days after the launch of ChatGPT. Most would likely have been more deliberate in purchasing a new microwave oven.

Technology is undoubtedly improving the quality of our lives in innumerable and unprecedented ways. But that is not the whole story. AI has a dark side, and our futures depend on balancing its benefits with the harms that it can do.

It's too late to turn back the clock on how digital technologies have eviscerated our privacy. For years, we mindlessly gave away our personal data through web surfing, social media, entertainment apps, location services, online shopping and clicking “ACCEPT” boxes as fast as we could. Today, people around the globe are giddily scanning their retinas in World (formerly Worldcoin) orbs, the brainchild of OpenAI’s Sam Altman, providing it unprecedented personal data in return for the vague promise of being able to identify themselves as humans in an online world dominated by machines. We have been converted into depersonalized data pods that can be harvested, analyzed and manipulated.

But then, businesses and governments realized that they no longer needed to go through the charade of asking permission to access data — they could simply take what they wanted or purchase it from someone who already had it. Freedom House says that, with the help of AI, repressive governments have........

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