A Harris Presidency Is the Only Way to Stay Ahead of A.I.; The New York Times, October 29, 2024

THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN, The New York Times; A Harris Presidency Is the Only Way to Stay Ahead of A.I.

"Kamala Harris, given her background in law enforcement, connections to Silicon Valley and the work she has already done on A.I. in the past four years, is up to this challenge, which is a key reason she has my endorsement for the presidency...

I am writing a book that partly deals with this subject and have benefited from my tutorials with Craig Mundie, the former chief research and strategy officer for Microsoft who still advises the company. He is soon coming out with a book of his own related to the longer-term issues and opportunities of A.G.I., written with Eric Schmidt, the former Google C.E.O., and Henry Kissinger, who died last year and worked on the book right up to the end of his life.

It is titled “Genesis: Artificial Intelligence, Hope, and the Human Spirit.” The book invokes the Bible’s description of the origin of humanity because the authors believe that our A.I. moment is an equally fundamental turning point for our species.

I agree. We have become Godlike as a species in two ways: We are the first generation to intentionally create a computer with more intelligence than God endowed us with. And we are the first generation to unintentionally change the climate with our own hands.

The problem is we have become Godlike without any agreement among us on the Ten Commandments — on a shared value system that should guide the use of our newfound powers. We need to fix that fast. And no one is better positioned to lead that challenge than the next U.S. president, for several reasons."

Obama Declassifies Documents Related to Argentina’s Dirty War; Wall Street Journal, 3/24/16

Ryan Dube and Taos Turner, Wall Street Journal; Obama Declassifies Documents Related to Argentina’s Dirty War:

""Democracies have to have the courage to acknowledge when we don’t live up to the ideals that we stand for, when we’ve been slow to speak up for human rights, and that was the case here,” Mr. Obama added.

Mr. Macri, who had asked the U.S. to declassify the documents, said Mr. Obama’s visit on the coup anniversary was an opportunity for Argentines to say “never again in Argentina to political violence, never again to institutional violence.”

“Today we need to reaffirm our commitment to democracy and human rights,” he added.

The State Department has declassified over 4,000 documents from the Dirty War period. The documents underscore the divide among some U.S. officials about how to respond to the military regime, which ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983.

At the center of the controversy is former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who met with top officials from Argentina’s military regime shortly after the coup on March 24, 1976."