AI is the new supervillain. Villagers are reaching for their pitchforks. People really don’t like AI. They don’t trust it and they don’t think it will be good for themselves or the world. The Economist predicts that “the AI backlash is only getting started.” The polls and the pushback, maybe your own feelings, are about the big picture, not about…
The Olympia Press was a notorious Parisian publishing house that used a legal loophole to mass-produce cheap, pseudonymous English erotica for tourists in the 1950s. Olympia Press was owned by Maurice Girodias, a chaotic businessman who had an eye for avant-garde masterpieces like Lolita but all too often took advantage of his authors. I’ll give you some background…
Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Those are the opening lines of Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov’s dazzling literary masterpiece. Lolita was an international bestseller that reshaped modern fiction and established Nabokov as one of the twentieth century’s greatest novelists. There’s a great story about why the first edition was a cheap paperback…
New AI technology is transforming scientific research, drug discovery, education, software development, weather forecasting, robotics, energy, agriculture, transportation, manufacturing, accessibility, translation and communication, astronomy, and elder care. Those are important! Keep them in mind when you read the next couple of sections so you don’t think I’m just a Debbie Downer. AI and the economy –…