Conclusion: At the Crossroads of the 21st Century Frankly, I’m with GPT-4—and Henry—on this one. That’s not a world I’d consider a win. So how can we navigate away from this dark-gray vision of the future in ways that allow us to productively reap AI’s amplifica- tion of human ingenuity while also preserving our self-determi- nation and free will? The paradox of the AI era is this: as today’s imperfect LLMs improve, requiring less and less from us, we will need to demand more from ourselves. We must always insist on situ- ating GPT-4 and its successors as our collaborative partners, not our replacements. We must continue to figure out how to keep human creativity, human judgment, and human values at the center of the processes we devise to work with these new AI tools, even as they themselves grow more and more capable. If that sounds daunting, remember the upside: while tools like GPT-4 can certainly enable complacency, they can also enable extraordinary results. So we can use AI to help us do less, or we can use AI to help us do better. The second option is the one that will help humanity continue to progress. And, since that path of progress is the path that Homo techne has been on, collectively, ever since the days of early hominids like Lucy, I’m optimistic that’s the path we’ll choose. Are you ready for this journey? 221