I am unabashedly a technology optimist. For me, however, that means making choices for how we will get the best out of technology for the good of humanity, while limiting its negative effects. With technology becoming ever more powerful there is a huge premium on getting this right as the downsides now include existential risk. Let me state upfront that I am super excited about progress in AI and what it can eventually do for humanity if we get this right. We could be building the capacity to...

I am unabashedly a technology optimist. For me, however, that means making choices for how we will get the best out of technology for the good of humanity, while limiting its negative effects. With technology becoming ever more powerful there is a huge premium on getting this right as the downsides now include existential risk. Let me state upfront that I am super excited about progress in AI and what it can eventually do for humanity if we get this right. We could be building the capacity to...

This morning’s NY Times has a couple of interesting stories. The first is that apparently the rate for bribery in NY State and City legislatures is as low as $20K. But the one that really caught my attention was the headline titled “Crosswalks in New York are not Havens.” Having three children who walk to school in Manhattan, this is a topic very near to my heart. The article starts out with the following quote:Pedestrians struck by cars are most often hit while in the crosswalk, with the sig...

This morning’s NY Times has a couple of interesting stories. The first is that apparently the rate for bribery in NY State and City legislatures is as low as $20K. But the one that really caught my attention was the headline titled “Crosswalks in New York are not Havens.” Having three children who walk to school in Manhattan, this is a topic very near to my heart. The article starts out with the following quote:Pedestrians struck by cars are most often hit while in the crosswalk, with the sig...

There have been a spate of deadly train derailments including two in the summer (one in Spain and one in Canada) most recently the Metro North one. Human error played a significant role in all of these. For instance, in the New York crash it appears that the driver alert mechanism was not installed in the front car. In Spain, the train driver was texting on his phone. In Canada the brakes had not been properly applied. This is particularly unfortunate at a time when the technology for reducin...

There have been a spate of deadly train derailments including two in the summer (one in Spain and one in Canada) most recently the Metro North one. Human error played a significant role in all of these. For instance, in the New York crash it appears that the driver alert mechanism was not installed in the front car. In Spain, the train driver was texting on his phone. In Canada the brakes had not been properly applied. This is particularly unfortunate at a time when the technology for reducin...