For many AI technology inspires hope for the future-the promise of shared human flourishing
and collective liberation from drudgery that defines the "good life " but always seems to elude
our species. Yet today's AI technology is forged from human-generated data into immensely
powerful but flawed mirrors that endlessly reflect the same errors biases and failures of
wisdom we are striving to escape. To open new futures for ourselves with these tools is as
misguided as gazing into a mirror while trying to climb an uncharted mountain. At this crucial
juncture for humanity and our planet we need something new from AI and more importantly from
ourselves. We need to find new hope-not to surrender our greatest moral and intellectual
ambitions to machines that have none but to renew those ambitions collectively for
ourselves. Shannon Vallor makes a wide-ranging prophetic and philosophical case for what AI
could be and what we can be with it. She calls us to reclaim our human potential for moral and
intellectual growth rather than losing sight of our shared humanity as we gaze dully into our
AI mirrors.
