At this horrible moment in history, it’s reassuring to find out that serious thinkers have long
been reflecting about national and global security and the way that AI interacts, or might
interact in the future, with military and strategic matters. Thus, The Age of AI (And Our Human
Future), by Henry Kissinger, Eric Schmidt, and Daniel Huttenlocher, is keenly relevant even
though the book is two years old, an eternity in AI-space.
However, the book is not a great read. It’s wordy, repetitive, and jargon-filled. I struggle to
recommend reading the whole thing. But, in light of our current onslaught of challenges,
Chapter 5, “Security and World Order” (pages 135-176), is worthwhile. I begin my review with
some comments on that chapter and then move on to the economics of AI and related topics.