Historian Yuval Noah Harari is a Big Thinker. His 2024 blockbuster book, Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks From the Stone Age to AI, concerns how Artificial Intelligence will shape our future. An AI “app” is a computer program trained on a vast amount of information (from the internet), learning to see patterns, for use in carrying out tasks. This is not thinking as we humans think of thinking; that’s probably a long way off. Nevertheless, AI has huge impacts on many aspects of our lives, which Harari’s book magisterially explores. A key problem is AI acting as an “alien” intelligence — working along lines we may not even understand. The book also importantly explores its implications for the future of democratic versus totalitarian systems.
Frank is a graduate of NYU Law School (1970), and served at the New York Public Service Commission as staff counsel and then administrative law judge (1977-97). He is the author of eight books including Albany’s O’Connell Machine (1973), Children of the Dragon (a novel), The Case for Rational Optimism (2009), and Love Poems. Robinson is a professional coin dealer. He is married to the poet Thérèse Broderick and has a daughter, Elizabeth. Robinson was appointed to the U.S. Assay Commission by President Nixon in 1972.