Key Questions

How will AI affect political processes and the electoral system, whether through social media or through other channels of influence?
What are the legal dimensions of emerging AI technologies? How are they affecting our courts and judicial system?
In what ways will AI and its related technologies affect educational institutions and processes, from elementary schools to universities?
As AI machines come to replace workers in growing swaths of the labor market, what will be the consequences for how people make a living? If rising unemployment requires the establishment of a Guaranteed Minimum Income scheme, how will this affect people’s sense of worth and life-purpose?
Apart from the question of automation, how is AI affecting the business world, and in what ways are these impacts likely to evolve over the coming decades?
What are the military implications of AI, whether through cyberwarfare or through other channels of influence?

What are the distinctive strengths and weaknesses of the data-intensive approaches to inquiry that AI facilitates?
How are research and knowledge production being altered (practically and conceptually) by AI tools?
How will artists and literary creators benefit from –and be challenged by – the radically new tools that AI offers them?
How have the social sciences been changed by the advent of AI-facilitated and data-driven approaches to research and policymaking?
What new domains of human experience might be opened up and enriched by the advent of advanced AI machines?
In what ways might AI become “unaligned” with human interests and values – leading, for example, to such unwanted effects as the erosion of privacy, the promotion of racism or sexism, or the advanced manipulation of public opinion? How can the social sciences and humanities contribute to mitigating the alignment problem?

What is the nature of the “intelligence” that machines exhibit today, and how does it compare with actual human intelligence? How will this “intelligence” change as the capabilities of the machines increase progressively over the coming decades?
If advanced AI machines start emulating human-like behaviors over the coming century, what will be the legal status of such entities? Can a machine have legal standing? Should we consider extending to these complex new entities some of the basic rights we associate with human dignity?
How will AI machines, and our increasingly intensive interactions with them, affect the nature of the human experience, and our sense of what it means to be human?
If advanced AI machines come to vastly exceed human capabilities in many areas of activity, how will this affect humanity’s perception of itself and its place in the universe?

Should AI technological research be regulated, and if so, through what kinds of instruments and institutions? What roles might be played in this by non-governmental agencies and actors?
How can basic research on AI safety and security be promoted, given the heavy emphasis of national and corporate players on racing for AI dominance?
What sorts of international treaties or other agreements are needed in order to keep cyberwarfare and AI arms races under more effective systems of control?
Some AI researchers have argued that advanced forms of this technology might someday pose an existential risk for human civilization. What are the most constructive ways to think about such extreme potential risks?