Quote of the Day (Peggy Noonan, on the Fallout From the Growth of AI)

“My very human prediction: The spectacular costs associated with AI [i.e., unemployment, shifts in insurance and retirement income] will force a debate on the sharing of its profits. The wealthy and powerful who own the AI companies won’t like that. But those who wished and failed to see the social media companies declared a public utility 10 years ago, and who drew support from the populist left and populist right—they would like that a lot. This will become one of the great political battles of the late 2020s and beyond.”—Former Presidential speechwriter and Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Peggy Noonan, “AI Is Here, and a Quiet Havoc Has Begun,” The Wall Street Journal, Aug. 9-10, 2025

Quote of the Day (Charina Chou, James Manyika, and Hartmut Neven, on the Promise and Peril of Quantum Computing)

“Like other new and powerful technologies, quantum computing [which uses quantum states of subatomic particles to store information and solve complex problems faster than on classical computers] holds enormous promise, and it also introduces significant new risks. In addition to large-scale data theft, economic disruption, and intelligence breaches, quantum computers could be used for malicious purposes such as stimulating and synthesizing chemical weapons or optimizing the flight trajectories of a swarm of drones. As with AI, the possibility of misuse or abuse raises critical questions about who should control the technology and how to mitigate the threats. Policymakers will need to determine how to maximize economic and societal gains while minimizing the dangers. Finding the best ways to achieve this balance will require a rigorous debate within civil society and an understanding by the public of the technology’s potential gains and harms. There are multiple futures for a world with quantum computers. The best one would see liberal democracies leading both the technology's development and its collective management. A worse one would have the United States and its international partners, through inaction or insufficient actions, cede dominance of the new technology to China and other autocratic countries.”— Charina Chou, James Manyika, and Hartmut Neven, “The Race to Lead the Quantum Future,” Foreign Affairs, January/February 2025 issue

Quote of the Day (John Thornhill, on the Implications of This Weekend’s Biggest IT Outage in History)

“Much has been made of the supposed deglobalisation of the world economy as physical supply chains have been unwound and reshoring of manufacturing has become fashionable. But in the digital realm the opposite is true: the global economy has become ever more interconnected. Mainly US and Chinese software and digital services have been embedded in the operations of millions of organizations and the daily lives of billions of individuals. Globalisation may be slowing down, but e-globalisation is still accelerating. It is essential that, as far as possible, its dangers are minimised.”— Innovation editor and tech columnist John Thornhill, “Blue Screens of Death Need to Minimise Risks From E-Globalisation,” The Financial Times, July 20-21, 2024