Programming note: This newsletter will be off on Monday, Oct. 12, for the holiday, returning on Tuesday. I’ve spent most of my life as a storyteller, making movies, TV programs and other what-have-you’s that try, in one way or another, to capture what it means to be human. Storytelling is perhaps humanity’s defining technology, a way of transmitting not just information but also inner life. It’s how we understand one another’s love, jealousy, ambition, grief, fear and longing. And while technology changes over time, human universals do not. But will that always be true? Especially as technology gets more and more powerful? Over the past decade or so, I’ve become increasingly fascinated — and increasingly concerned — with the ways technology is changing not just how we tell stories, but how we communicate, how we cooperate, even how we think. The more I learn about the technology we call artificial intelligence, and the more I understand the enormous impact it’s already having on what it means to be human, the more compelled I feel to use my abilities as a storyteller to help others understand what’s at stake, and to advocate the kind of global cooperation this moment demands. I’ve been listening to and learning from all kinds of experts in the field: technologists, policy wonks, moneymakers and truth seekers. I’ve been making videos, giving talks — I’m even directing a movie I co-wrote about this subject for Netflix. Earlier this year, the United Nations (bless them) took notice of all this and offered me an official position: global advocate for human-centric digital governance. A couple of weeks ago, I joined the international community at the United Nations General Assembly, where one of the big topics this year, as you might imagine, was A.I. governance. It was an enormous honor to participate in the global discussion around this topic. And yes, I made a video for Times Opinion about my experience to help tell the ongoing story — and attempt to answer five questions on A.I. that might be on your mind.
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