every technology Revolution presents a choice build for Freedom or watch as others build for control in 1728 Benjamin Franklin took the technology of the printing press and built a network of libraries and independent Publishers that put knowledge beyond the control of authority two centuries later the same technology that spread enlightenment under Franklin's hand would serve as a tool of mass manipulation under ysf Geral Franklin was one of History's great philosopher Builders Franklin showed us that while we can never guarantee that technology will be used well we can design technology to serve Freedom rather than control
the lesson of these contrasts is clear technology raises human potential only when it Shapers build systems that amplify human reason that preserve human autonomy and that resist central control three forces make the next 5 years decisive first we Face the largest infrastructure build in human history over a trillion dollars in AI compute by the early 2030s this transformation will reshape how Humanity thinks and decides it'll eclipse the printing industrial and digital revolutions second we're in a global race for AI Control governing bodies from Brussels to California to my home state of Texas are rushing to
impose top- down controls meanwhile China demonstrates how AI fused with government creates a perfect police state in which descent is anticipated and crushed third AI is becoming the invisible mediator of human life today it shapes 20% of our waking hours 20% tomorrow it'll be our civilization's new opport system the leaders we develop and the systems companies institutions that they build will determine whether this AI Revolution elevates human potential or enables perfect control as we know well here at ARK institutions shape the character of those they educate but when it comes to AI today's institutions fall
far short modern universities produce technicians and conforming ideologues tech companies breed optimizers who Master the means without questioning the ends think tanks cultivate theorists who do not build yet history shows what's possible when institutions rise to meet their moment cambridge's mathematical tripos turned mathematicians into Engineers who powered the Industrial Revolution mit's radiation lab turned physicists into inventors who won World War II Chicago's economics Department turned Scholars into reformers who freed markets across five continents each succeeded by uniting Deep Theory with urgent purpose today's challenge calls for that very same synthesis yet our Institution vacuum has
instead yielded four fundamentally flawed responses the doomsayers who have attracted billions to their cause and are the intellectual incumbent their prophecy AI will destroy us all their solution hit the pause button centralized control radically remakes Society on the basis of risk avoidance and do do this even if it means forfeiting progress while inviting tyranny the accelerationists those who would unleash the development of artificial intelligence as an end in itself that is to say humans become the mere instruments of an optimization of a sweeping technology trajectory that is exponential inexorable transcendent the Dignity of humanity expressed
through countless lives lived and lost is flattened reduced to a variable in a thermodynamic equation to a link in an evolutionary chain The Regulators who answer every challenge with rules that stifle both Innovation and freedom and techno authoritarian China which demonstrates ai's dark potential for automated social control at the scale of billions of lives if you're a builder today it can feel like you have only two choices two stories about the future stop everything or continue without thinking this Poverty of imagination denies us what we desperately need a substantive vision of technology in service of
human flourishing Justice Franklin saw the printing press not merely as technology but as a tool for enlightenment we need a new generation of philosopher Builders to take the project even further if the printing press democratized access to knowledge AI will transform how we recover transmit and create it but knowledge demands both The Clash of ideas and the rigor to test them today's Tech culture suppresses the first and neglects the second Elon Musk speaks of raising AI to be truth seeking fine words but we must ask what kind of Truth and sought in what way because
there are two fundamentally different answers the centralized approach treats truth as a monolith some something decreed by the few frozen into Doctrine enforced by machines this is the AI Ministry of Truth an orwellian oracle dispensing approved answers through opaque mechanisms the danger here runs deeper than censorship in the name of alignment or safety these systems won't just suppress certain viewpoints they will Gra gradually imperceptibly narrow the bounds of thought itself homogenizing and flattening our intellectual landscape the alternative is a vibrant Marketplace of ideas where truth emerges from The Clash of perspectives not from authorities decree
here knowledge grows and evolves and is shaped by contestation it draws upon wisdom past and present and every mind becomes an active participant and not a passive consumer in the search for truth in preferring the second approach we need a set of principles to help us stay on the path to genuine truth seeking AI our patron saints for this journey are John Stewart Mill and Socrates in on Liberty Mill makes a bold case for free speech as the lifeblood of Truth every opinion he no matter how unpopular or seemingly wrong must compete in the marketplace
of ideas even false views often contain fragments of Truth and their collision with accepted opinion helps us grasp truth more deeply because human Minds drift toward passivity what Mill called Dead Dogma only open debate can jolt them awake so so Mill shows us the social process of Truth seeking The Clash of minds but how should each individual mind proceed for this Socrates is our guide in the theotis Socrates teaches that wisdom begins not with answers but with questions that expose our ignorance through inquiry we transform from collectors of certainty into Seekers of Truth each question
revealing a complex of further questions in the marketplace of ideas the deepest knowledge comes from those who question best these aren't just philosophical ideals Free Speech decentralized inquiry these Concepts must suffuse the architecture of our civilization scale AI systems 250 years ago the American Founders built a philosophy to law pipeline they turned these principles into the architecture of a free society today as Builders we must create a philosophy to code pipeline to do the same for our time that is why I founded Cosmos Institute that is why I'm proud to announce our partnership with Oxford's
new human centered AI lab to do exactly that to translate philosophy to code to build the world's first TR seeking AI this is our civilizational moment for over 200,000 years we as humans have created technology as tools as means to our ends today with AI we're building technology that has the potential to shape both the means and ends of human endeavor the printing press never determined what was printed today's AI systems mediate what information we consume and even shape how we decide what's good for us we can build AI that amplifies human reason that preserves
human autonomy that resists centralization and that enables us to seek truth in ways unimag inable by our predecessors but worthy of our inheritance to save our civilization we need those leaders like Franklin who not only understand the principles of a free Society but can realize them in the systems that will come to dominate it the moment for philosopher Builders is now thank you
