Keen On

According to Shannon Vallor, a self-styled AI “ethicist”, artificial intelligence is a mirror. When we interact with the latest algorithms from OpenAI or Anthropic, she says, we are actually observing our social and political values, prejudices and ideals. This all-too-human quality of AI makes it less of an existential threat to humanity and more of a reflection both of society’s flaws and a promise of its self-improvement. AI, like our own reflection in the mirror, is both everything and nothing. No wonder we need “ethicists” like Vallor to remind us of our flawed appearance. Shannon Vallor is a philosopher of AI and a writer of books about how new technologies reshape human character. Vallor grew up fascinated by the promise of computing, robotics, and space travel to allow us to shape a more humane future. Today that dream is drifting further away, as we lock ourselves into ever more unsustainable social and environmental patterns. Despite being marketed as the keys to our future, the AI technologies that