flâneur

Can the Cold War Teach Us How to Slow Down AI?

time.com · 1,487 words · saved by 1 readers

No one in AI trusts their rivals to slow down—so everyone races ahead. New tech could help break that impasse.

During the depths of the Cold War, a macabre logic caused the U.S. and Soviet Union to become locked in an arms race, ultimately amassing enough nuclear weapons to end civilization many times over. Both sides would have liked to deescalate. But for decades, neither could trust that the other would comply with any arms reduction treaty. By the 1980s, however, scientists had developed seismographs, satellites, and tamper-proof cameras. Now that each side could monitor the other, disarmament took hold. A Russian proverb, “trust, but verify,” came to define the approach that helped end the Cold…

saved by

related reading