World must carefully consider AI’s purpose

Artificial intelligence is reshaping how we communicate, access information and work, as well as how income and status are distributed and even how we wage war. Yet the public conversation remains narrowly focused on the competition between AI labs or on abstract debates about the technology’s capabilities. Almost no one is asking what purpose AI ought to serve or whether our current mindset, institutions and control mechanisms are capable of steering the technology toward broad-based improvements in human welfare.