Tomorrow’s world
A robot ruler, as imagined by our future robot ruler, ChatGPT
Soon, we’ll no longer be the smartest beings on this planet
Finally, says Noah Smith on Substack, people are “waking up” to just how much AI will transform society. An essay by AI entrepreneur Matt Shumer predicting mass white collar lay-offs went viral last week, garnering 80 million views. Spotify says its best developers haven’t written a line of code this year; they get AI to do it for them. And all of this – replacing software engineers, acing the world’s hardest maths tests, creating fully functioning apps at the touch of a button – is “just the beginning”. Yet worrying about whether AI will take your job is rather like “a Sioux tribesman in 1840 wondering if the white settlers would take his buffalo”. There’s a bigger issue here. Before long, humans will no longer be “the most intelligent beings on this planet”.
Intelligence is subjective, of course, and plenty of AI sceptics say the technology will never be able to think like humans. And that’s probably true. But it doesn’t matter: just because human thinking is “special and cool” doesn’t mean humans are more effective than AI. Given the technology’s existing abilities, and the mountains of cash being spent on further improving it, we are surely barrelling towards a future where an “increasingly autonomous, globally distributed complex of AI agents” will determine the allocation of resources on this planet. And that will inevitably flip the balance of power between humans and AI. How it plays out is anyone’s guess – AI may prove a “more enlightened despot” than the leaders who lord it over us today. But no one should doubt that it’s coming. As the veteran British computer scientist Stuart Russell has asked: “How do we retain power over entities more powerful than us, forever?” The answer is you don’t.
Advertisement
Property
THE GEORGIAN TOWNHOUSE This Grade II-listed London home is one of very few properties to back directly on to Greenwich Park, says Country Life. On the ground floor are a wood-panelled dining room with a Georgian fireplace, a kitchen, a conservatory and a library, while the basement has a bedroom, wine cellar and utility room. On the first floor is a grand sitting room with park views, a second living room and a study with a balcony. The main bedroom is on the top floor, along with another bedroom and a bathroom. Outside is a walled garden with wisteria, peonies and an apple tree. Greenwich station is a seven-minute walk. £2.975m. Click on the image to see the listing.
Heroes and villains
Hero
Danika Mason, an Australian TV presenter at the Winter Olympics, who didn’t let the matter of having to go live on air stop her from having a drink or two beforehand. The 34-year-old entertainingly slurred her way through the segment on Wednesday, ruminating on the price of coffee in the US before inexplicably concluding: “I’m not sure about the iguanas, where are we going with that one? But anyway.” To watch the full video – including the studio host’s game attempt to blame it on the cold – click here.
Hero
The Bank of England, which has issued new guidance reassuring trans male employees that they can wear a dress and high heels to work. The world’s second-oldest central bank added that trans men can wear “large earrings”, cis men can wear eyeshadow, and gender-fluid staff can alternate between outfits: a suit some days, a dress on others.
Villain
An Amazon delivery driver who got his van stuck in the Thames Estuary after blindly following his satnav on to the mudflats. The unnamed driver was forced to abandon the vehicle in rising waters after trying to drive down a (fairly treacherous) walking path known as The Broomway, near Southend-on-Sea. The stranded van was later recovered by a local farmer.
Heroes
Winter Olympians, who got through the mountain of free condoms provided for them at the Milan-Cortina Games in just three days, forcing organisers to restock supplies. Spokesman Mark Adams said there were 2,800 athletes and 10,000 johnnies. “Go figure, as they say.”
Hero
A partner at KPMG Australia who very sensibly used AI to help him answer questions on an internal training course about using AI. Unfortunately, his employers didn’t see it that way: they fined him A$10,000 (£5,200) and made him retake the course.
Life
Andrew in 1973. Tim Graham Photo Library/Getty
From “golden boy” to “his buffoon highness”
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has been causing the royals grief almost since the day he was born, says Hilary Rose in The Times. When he was five, grooms at the Royal Mews in Windsor got so sick of him taunting the horses with a stick that they threw him into a dung heap. He loved practical jokes: sprinkling itching powder on his mother’s bed; tinkering with the TV aerial on the Buckingham Palace roof so she couldn’t watch the racing. As a young man, his behaviour was so atrocious that a footman punched him in the face. “Queen Elizabeth refused his subsequent offer to resign on the grounds that her son had obviously deserved it.”
Perhaps the only period of his life on which Andrew can “reflect with satisfaction” was when, aged 22, he saw active service as a helicopter pilot in the Falklands. “Of course I was frightened,” he once said with rare humility. “Everyone was frightened.” But his phase as the royal family’s “golden boy” didn’t last. On an official tour of California in 1984 he sprayed the press photographers with a paint gun as a “prank”, ruining their expensive equipment and overshadowing the trip. As Britain’s special envoy for trade, he quickly became known for his “boorish behaviour”: in the Gulf they called him HBH, “his buffoon highness”. Back home, a maid said she had to have a day’s training to arrange his collection of 72 teddies. “His two favourite bears,” she said, “sat on two thrones either side of the bed.” It is said that Andrew remained, despite everything, the apple of his mother’s eye. As many have noted, perhaps the only blessing about his arrest on Thursday was that the late queen didn’t live to see it.
🚦🥴 Andrew wasn’t known for his business nous, says Tina Brown on Substack. He once had lunch with Boris Johnson, who was then the London mayor, where he dismally failed to articulate a pitch for there to be fewer traffic lights in the capital. “I’m the last person to be a republican,” Johnson remarked afterwards. “But fuck. If I ever have to spend another lunch like that, I soon will be.”
The Knowledge Crossword
What to listen to
Dominic Sandbrook has teamed up with his 28-year-old producer on The Rest Is History, Tabitha Syrett, for a terrific new podcast dissecting classic and contemporary fiction, says Hannah Davies in The Guardian. Each episode of The Book Club focuses on a single novel: the first was Wuthering Heights and future instalments include The Secret History, The Great Gatsby and The Hobbit. The duo untangle not only the book’s plot but also the biographical and historical context of the author and their work. With Emily Brontë, for example, there is talk of her stint as a fearsome teacher in Brussels and the time she somewhat horrifyingly punched her dog in the face. One hour, episodes weekly.
Weather
Quoted
“Most of the trouble in the world is caused by people wanting to be important.”
TS Eliot
That’s it. You’re done.
Let us know what you thought of today’s issue by replying to this email
To find out about advertising and partnerships, click here
Been forwarded this newsletter? Try it for free
Enjoying The Knowledge? Click to share
