Two A.I.’s In Conversation May 15, 2024May 14, 2024 Watch! The world is going to be so different so soon. Dare we hope AI’s multiplying power will be harnessed to produce widely shared happiness, avoiding the pitfalls? That strikes me as something of a longshot. As President Clinton said so frequently (paraphrasing from memory) — “Isn’t it amazing? We’ve landed on the moon. We’ve split the atom. We’re mapping the human genome. We’ve solved all these incredibly complex problems . . . and yet the one problem we can’t seem to solve is the oldest problem of all: just learning to live with each other.” But what other shot do we have available? And what social systems will work best in tomorrow’s world? Autocracy? Monarchy? Democracy? Communism? Unfettered capitalism? Well-regulated capitalism? Socialism? Democratic socialism? Darwinism? Tyranny? Anarchy? How about primogeniture, where all wealth passes to the first-born male? (In this X-rated clip early in “The Gentlemen,” streaming on Netflix, Freddy — the eldest son — reacts to the reading of his father’s will. After 600 years of primogeniture, the family’s 15,000-acre English estate is going to his younger brother.) Should wealth that is the product of thousands of years’ work, struggle, suffering, and genius be concentrated among just a lucky few while billions struggle to make ends meet? Which is not a bad segue to Joseph Stiglitz’s opinion, published Monday: Time is up for neoliberals: Democracy requires a new, progressive capitalism. Maybe in a few years we can just ask A.I. all these questions — and feel comfortable relying on her answers. Or just watch her head explode.