As a particle physicist, I’m interested in the fundamental laws of nature and questions connected to the origin of the universe. My field grew out of the same intellectual soil that produced the field of atomic research, decisively pushed forward by the Manhattan Project. Arguably, entering the race to develop atomic weapons was necessary and justified as an effort to use nuclear dominance as a deterrent, but that effort went much further than scientists originally intended.
Less than a century has passed since humanity encountered the horrific devastation that nuclear weapons can cause when it witnessed the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It must give us pause to contemplate whether we have learned our lesson regarding the potentially catastrophic consequences of developing new technologies in the absence of moral direction. With artificial intelligence, we are facing a similar turning point, one that is more subtle and dangerous.
