Article
Kissinger’s last words on AI
KWADUKUZA, KZN
FORMER US Secretary of State and political scientist, Dr. Henry A. Kissinger died in November last year. He was one of the most influential human beings in the world. His writings on international affairs and history were popular and remain popular worldwide.
Kissinger was gifted in writing. A master of the English language for sure. He knew very well how to strike a powerful message in text. To verify what I have just said, read his senior thesis at Harvard University, written in 1950, titled “The Meaning of History”.
In that thesis, Kissinger’s opening sentences read, “In the life of every person there comes a point when he realizes that out of all the seemingly limitless possibilities of his youth he has in fact become one actuality. No longer is life a broad plain with forests and mountains beckoning all-around, but it becomes apparent that one’s journey across the meadows has indeed followed a regular path, that one can no longer go this way or that, but that the direction is set, the limits defined.” How beautiful!
Hard to find a political mind that can craft something of this special quality.
Kissinger lived a remarkable life. At the age of 100, he published three books. The first one titled the “Age of AI and Our Human Future”, published in 2021. The second titled “Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy”, published in 2022. And the third and last book of his life is titled “Genesis – Artificial Intelligence, Hope, and The Human Spirit”, published last month, a year after Kissinger’s death.
I bought Genesis in London, United Kingdom, two weeks ago. I have a habit of book shopping when I’m overseas. I’m still a book lover and book fundamentalist; always looking forward to the experience of foreign book shopping.
Co-authored with Eric Schmidt the blazingly smart former CEO of Google, and Craig Mundie former Microsoft’s chief research and strategy officer, Genesis is a powerful, beautifully written book.
The foreword to Genesis is by Sir Niall Ferguson, the authorised biographer of Dr. Kissinger.
Ferguson was the right person to pen the foreword, and he did a marvellous job. There were no gaps.
In the foreword, Ferguson characterises Kissinger as a man who had always been fascinated by new technological advancements that will shape the destiny of nations in the international system.
During Kissinger’s years as a young academic at Harvard University, the discourse worldwide was about the emergence of nuclear technologies and weapons, and the grave risks they posed to humanity, Ferguson writes.
Kissinger understood the subject of nuclear weapons very well as an academic in the 1950s and produced a book that made him a household name, titled “Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy” in 1957. Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy elevated Kissinger to stardom.
In the absorbing Genesis, you sense Kissinger in every page of the text, unloading his learned thoughts on AI. The entire book is Kissingerian. It’s Kissinger’s beautiful style of writing throughout the book.
In one of his interviews recently, Eric said that it was Kissinger who did the writing. Schmidt says that Kissinger worked on Genesis in his death bed, at the age of 100. Remarkable! Some people are blessed. Very few people are that intellectually engaged and productive at the age of 100.
In the book, the authors, led by Kissinger, delve into the subjects of the discovery of AI, how AI will challenge the human brain, reality, politics, security, prosperity, science, and strategy. All these chapters are captivating, especially to people like us who are obsessed with the economic and political course of human history.
How AI will transform the mechanics of political discourse is a very important part of Genesis.
The authors argue that AI will remake political decision making. A partnership between humans and AI will be an imperative in creating an environment where AI is effective and is trusted by humans.
The remarkable speed of AI information processing will mean that human brain capabilities will be outpaced by AI at an unprecedented rate. This will be a colossal challenge for humanity. A challenge of a magnitude we’ve never had to deal with before as mankind.
How wars are fought in the age of AI will be very different from the conventional warfare we are accustomed to.
The authors write, “Al-enabled weapons will be unprecedentedly exact.” In the next page they write, ““Als will thus shrink the gap between original intent and ultimate outcome, including in the application of lethal force. Whether land-based drone swarms, machine corps deployed in the sea, or possibly interstellar fleets, machines will possess highly precise capabilities of killing humans with little degree of uncertainty and with limitless impact. The bounds of the potential destruction will hinge only on the will, and the restraint, of human and machine.”
We are really entering a new era for humanity. My opinion is that in this new era, the challenge will be the reset of institutions, the formulation of norms and standards that will govern AI conduct in warfare. Of course, in democracies expect robust debates on the formulation of such standards.
The book raises many questions that AI experts and policy makers will need to answer in the upcoming years. The world needs good regulations on the use of AI. I repeat, good regulations, not bad regulations.
After reading the book, I can’t help thinking about the African continent and AI. What will be the impact of AI on Africa? I’m not yet certain what the impact of AI will be on African societies. But I guess, we can expect all the effects of AI discussed in Genesis to reach Africa as well, since they are universal, or are positioned as universal in the book.
The AI frenzy has been largely concentrated in developed countries, in my observation. Probably because continents like Africa still must deal with the problems of extreme poverty, energy supply, disease, security? That’s just a question.
43% of Africans still do not have access to electricity, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), which is astonishing in the 21st century. Our continent is the most energy-deficient continent in the world.
Or perhaps it’s because, as Gillian Tett a columnist in the Financial Times wrote this past week, “Until now “anglophone actors” have “dominated the debate” around AI on the world stage, as the academics Stephen Cave and Kanta Dihal note in the introduction to their book, Imagining AI. That reflects US tech dominance.” And let’s be honest, by “anglophone actors”, Gillian refers to developed anglophone regions.
About Genesis, famed economist Professor Larry H. Summers, whom I met in Colorado last June, writes, “It is profoundly important reading.”
May Dr. Henry Kissinger rest in peace. What a gifted writer! I’ve been inspired by his command of the English language. I hope you get to read Genesis soon. It’s a profound, timely book on AI. PM
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© PHUMLANI M. MAJOZI