引領了人工智能繁榮和ChatGPT的開發者OpenAI,經歷了非常混亂的一個周末。
該公司在上周末換了三位首席執行官,而其知名領導人、聯合創始人和前首席執行官薩姆·奧爾特曼,已經離開公司,將加入微軟(Microsoft),培養一個強大的競爭對手。但這也是一個未知數,因為有跡象表明,奧爾特曼仍然有希望重回OpenAI。
奧爾特曼的離職會影響OpenAI的860億美元的估值,這會傷害投資者、高管和持股員工,因為他們目前正在準備簽署一份財務協議,該協議將允許他們出售部分高估值的股份。
而且上周末發生的事件凸顯出一場更大規模的辯論。這場辯論從今年年初人工智能突然爆紅的時候開始,辯論的焦點是如何以安全和合乎道德的方式開發一項可能具有變革意義的技術。批評者擔心,在開發一種威脅人類生存的技術時,硅谷“快速行動、打破常規”的作風,可能會產生可怕的后果。
簡單總結:OpenAI在上周末到底發生了什么?
11月17日下午,OpenAI董事會撤銷了奧爾特曼的職務,并在一篇博客文章里稱他在與董事會的溝通中“一直不夠坦率”,這在科技界引發了熱烈的猜測。董事會并未詳細透露奧爾特曼在哪些方面不夠坦率(而且至今依舊未做出說明)。公司的首席技術官米拉·穆拉蒂被任命為臨時首席執行官。
有傳聞稱,奧爾特曼與另外一位聯合創始人伊利亞·蘇茨克維爾的關系日益緊張。蘇茨克維爾是OpenAI董事會成員。公司總裁、聯合創始人格雷格·布羅克曼卻被夾在中間。奧爾特曼被驅逐后,布羅克曼不再擔任董事會主席,但并未被公司解雇。幾個小時后,布羅克曼也辭去了高管職務,選擇與奧爾特曼站在一起。
11月18日,有媒體爆料稱穆拉蒂正在進行談判,計劃重新聘用奧爾特曼和布羅克曼擔任其他職務。奧爾特曼似乎愿意考慮這種可能性,他甚至發布了一張自己配戴訪客徽章在OpenAI辦公室里的照片。奧爾特曼在X上發文稱:“這是我第一次也是最后一次配戴這個徽章。”在公司試圖讓奧爾特曼回歸之前,公司發生了大規模員工抗議,奧爾特曼的盟友,包括微軟的高管,均要求奧爾特曼回歸。
OpenAI董事會拒絕讓步,而是做出了一個驚人的舉動,聘請了一位替代者:Twitch的創始人埃米特·希爾。希爾在2014年以約10億美元的價格,把他的公司賣給了亞馬遜(Amazon)。
顯然,OpenAI不會允許奧爾特曼重回公司。11月20日上午早些時候,微軟的首席執行官薩蒂亞·納德拉突然聘請奧爾特曼和布羅克曼,負責該科技巨頭內部新成立的研究部門。
誰是薩姆·奧爾特曼?
奧爾特曼是硅谷的名人,也是人工智能領域里知名度最高的人。有人將他被罷免,與蘋果公司(Apple)錯誤地解雇年輕的史蒂夫·喬布斯這一著名事件相提并論。
奧爾特曼全職加入OpenAI之前,曾經在硅谷最著名的創業孵化機構Y Combinator擔任總裁。奧爾特曼的初創公司Loopt支持用戶彼此進行位置共享,這是最早從Y Combinator孵化的初創公司之一。
之后他變成了一位富有且在科技界備受喜愛的人物。雖然奧爾特曼投資了數十家公司,但眾所周知,他在OpenAI不持有任何股份。
董事會與奧爾特曼因為什么產生了分歧?
目前就連科技界內部人士也不得而知。雖然沒有確切答案,但有幾種可能性。因為奧爾特曼是一位連續創業者,因此董事會可能對他目前或計劃的創業項目感到不滿,這可能給人們產生一種他與公司存在利益沖突的印象。
據彭博社(Bloomberg)報道,奧爾特曼計劃成立一家新芯片公司,與在人工智能領域里占支配地位的英偉達(Nvidia)競爭,并且一直在中東尋找投資者。人工智能的崛起帶來了算力需求的繁榮。
另外一種可能性是,奧爾特曼和布羅克曼與董事會的理念不合。有些與利他主義運動(名譽掃地的加密貨幣高管薩姆·班克曼-弗里德也是這種運動的支持者)存在關聯的董事會成員認為,人工智能給人類帶來了嚴重威脅。這種思想學派的支持者對于僅僅為了技術發展而推動人工智能感到警惕,而奧爾特曼陣營則希望盡可能推動OpenAI的研究。董事會可能認為奧爾特曼和他的盟友,過分熱衷于推動人工智能技術發展,卻沒有充分考慮到它可能帶來的危險。
為什么事情會突然發生?
事實上,這件事情的發生并不突然。在上周末的戲劇性變化發生之前,由于奧爾特曼加快推動OpenAI人工智能產品商業化,蘇茨克維爾及其盟友與奧爾特曼之間的不合已經持續了一年之久。
在OpenAI本月早些時候的首個開發者日上,奧爾特曼發布的一項工具,支持其他開發者使用公司的模型開發自己的人工智能工具。據美國有線電視新聞網(CNN)報道,包括蘇茨克維爾在內的多位公司高管,不認同這種做法。
微軟在此事中扮演什么角色?
微軟是OpenAI最大的金主,為其提供了運行強大模型所需要的算力。微軟在該公司已經投資了總計130億美元,因此它在這個過程中具有異常強大的影響力。據Axios爆料,在OpenAI公開宣布解雇奧爾特曼前一分鐘,微軟高管,包括納德拉,就已經獲悉了這個決定。
最初,納德拉表示即便奧爾特曼不再管理公司,微軟也會繼續與OpenAI的合作伙伴關系。但11月18日,微軟和其他投資者開始推動奧爾特曼回歸OpenAI,并最終雇傭了他和布羅克曼。
OpenAI的員工如何看待此事?
用一個詞來形容他們的反應就是:暴動。11月20日上午,在OpenAI的700名員工里,有超過500人簽署聯名信,表示如果董事會不辭職,他們就將辭職,并與奧爾特曼一起加入微軟。
奧爾特曼在OpenAI擔任首席執行官期間很受歡迎,員工對他離職的消息感到震驚。他們是在公司對外公開宣布之后,才知道了奧爾特曼被罷免的消息。
OpenAI即將簽署一份“收購要約”,這份邀約允許員工把未來的利潤分成權利出售給其他投資者。奧爾特曼的離職會影響這份協議的簽署,而且可能讓員工失去一次獲得巨大收益的機會。
聯名信直言不諱地批評董事會對奧爾特曼和布羅克曼離職的處理方式。信中寫道:“你們的行為表明,你們沒有監管OpenAI的能力。”穆拉蒂最早簽字,而在奧爾特曼離職之前與其存在分歧的董事會成員蘇茨克維爾也簽署了聯名信。
11月20日上午,蘇茨克維爾在X上寫道,他對參與了董事會罷免奧爾特曼的決定感到“深深的后悔”,引發了新一輪猜測。
接下來會發生什么?
微軟的計劃很清楚:它將在奧爾特曼領導的新研究團隊投入資金、人才和云算力等資源。奧爾特曼會繼續他在OpenAI的工作,開發日益成熟的大語言模型,并為它們設計商業應用,他的下屬可能是從OpenAI轉投微軟的前同事。
OpenAI的情況更加混亂,因為它要面對員工大規模辭職或董事會徹底重組或者兩種情況同時出現的威脅。公司還面臨員工集體跳槽加入微軟的可能性。與此同時,希爾宣布計劃對奧爾特曼被解雇的情況展開調查。
OpenAI還要平息投資者的不滿。OpenAI的關鍵人物離職,加入同樣是科技業巨頭的競爭對手,這令投資者感到不安。如果OpenAI在與微軟的人工智能競賽中最終落敗,投資者的投資可能就會打水漂。(當然,微軟也是投資者之一。)
對奧爾特曼而言,他擺脫了OpenAI作為一家非營利性公司的營利性子公司這種非同尋常的公司結構的束縛,就可以嘗試發展人工智能的各種途徑。但有人懷疑,長期在初創公司擔任高管的奧爾特曼,是否會覺得微軟這種龐然大物的僵化體制,令他感到束縛。此外,有消息人士對The Verge表示,奧爾特曼可能仍舊傾向于重回OpenAI。
這對人工智能的未來意味著什么?
無論發生了多少公司內部的陰謀,上周末的事件都表明了人工智能研究的高風險后果。
這并不是我們通常以為的科技公司人事變動:正如作家尤瓦爾·諾瓦·赫拉利所寫的那樣,與約會、叫車服務或送餐應用程序不同,人工智能的未來與人類的未來息息相關。赫拉利曾經警告:“我們所談論的可能是人類歷史的終結,是人類占主宰地位的時代走向終結。”(財富中文網)
譯者:劉進龍
審校:汪皓
引領了人工智能繁榮和ChatGPT的開發者OpenAI,經歷了非常混亂的一個周末。
該公司在上周末換了三位首席執行官,而其知名領導人、聯合創始人和前首席執行官薩姆·奧爾特曼,已經離開公司,將加入微軟(Microsoft),培養一個強大的競爭對手。但這也是一個未知數,因為有跡象表明,奧爾特曼仍然有希望重回OpenAI。
奧爾特曼的離職會影響OpenAI的860億美元的估值,這會傷害投資者、高管和持股員工,因為他們目前正在準備簽署一份財務協議,該協議將允許他們出售部分高估值的股份。
而且上周末發生的事件凸顯出一場更大規模的辯論。這場辯論從今年年初人工智能突然爆紅的時候開始,辯論的焦點是如何以安全和合乎道德的方式開發一項可能具有變革意義的技術。批評者擔心,在開發一種威脅人類生存的技術時,硅谷“快速行動、打破常規”的作風,可能會產生可怕的后果。
簡單總結:OpenAI在上周末到底發生了什么?
11月17日下午,OpenAI董事會撤銷了奧爾特曼的職務,并在一篇博客文章里稱他在與董事會的溝通中“一直不夠坦率”,這在科技界引發了熱烈的猜測。董事會并未詳細透露奧爾特曼在哪些方面不夠坦率(而且至今依舊未做出說明)。公司的首席技術官米拉·穆拉蒂被任命為臨時首席執行官。
有傳聞稱,奧爾特曼與另外一位聯合創始人伊利亞·蘇茨克維爾的關系日益緊張。蘇茨克維爾是OpenAI董事會成員。公司總裁、聯合創始人格雷格·布羅克曼卻被夾在中間。奧爾特曼被驅逐后,布羅克曼不再擔任董事會主席,但并未被公司解雇。幾個小時后,布羅克曼也辭去了高管職務,選擇與奧爾特曼站在一起。
11月18日,有媒體爆料稱穆拉蒂正在進行談判,計劃重新聘用奧爾特曼和布羅克曼擔任其他職務。奧爾特曼似乎愿意考慮這種可能性,他甚至發布了一張自己配戴訪客徽章在OpenAI辦公室里的照片。奧爾特曼在X上發文稱:“這是我第一次也是最后一次配戴這個徽章。”在公司試圖讓奧爾特曼回歸之前,公司發生了大規模員工抗議,奧爾特曼的盟友,包括微軟的高管,均要求奧爾特曼回歸。
OpenAI董事會拒絕讓步,而是做出了一個驚人的舉動,聘請了一位替代者:Twitch的創始人埃米特·希爾。希爾在2014年以約10億美元的價格,把他的公司賣給了亞馬遜(Amazon)。
顯然,OpenAI不會允許奧爾特曼重回公司。11月20日上午早些時候,微軟的首席執行官薩蒂亞·納德拉突然聘請奧爾特曼和布羅克曼,負責該科技巨頭內部新成立的研究部門。
誰是薩姆·奧爾特曼?
奧爾特曼是硅谷的名人,也是人工智能領域里知名度最高的人。有人將他被罷免,與蘋果公司(Apple)錯誤地解雇年輕的史蒂夫·喬布斯這一著名事件相提并論。
奧爾特曼全職加入OpenAI之前,曾經在硅谷最著名的創業孵化機構Y Combinator擔任總裁。奧爾特曼的初創公司Loopt支持用戶彼此進行位置共享,這是最早從Y Combinator孵化的初創公司之一。
之后他變成了一位富有且在科技界備受喜愛的人物。雖然奧爾特曼投資了數十家公司,但眾所周知,他在OpenAI不持有任何股份。
董事會與奧爾特曼因為什么產生了分歧?
目前就連科技界內部人士也不得而知。雖然沒有確切答案,但有幾種可能性。因為奧爾特曼是一位連續創業者,因此董事會可能對他目前或計劃的創業項目感到不滿,這可能給人們產生一種他與公司存在利益沖突的印象。
據彭博社(Bloomberg)報道,奧爾特曼計劃成立一家新芯片公司,與在人工智能領域里占支配地位的英偉達(Nvidia)競爭,并且一直在中東尋找投資者。人工智能的崛起帶來了算力需求的繁榮。
另外一種可能性是,奧爾特曼和布羅克曼與董事會的理念不合。有些與利他主義運動(名譽掃地的加密貨幣高管薩姆·班克曼-弗里德也是這種運動的支持者)存在關聯的董事會成員認為,人工智能給人類帶來了嚴重威脅。這種思想學派的支持者對于僅僅為了技術發展而推動人工智能感到警惕,而奧爾特曼陣營則希望盡可能推動OpenAI的研究。董事會可能認為奧爾特曼和他的盟友,過分熱衷于推動人工智能技術發展,卻沒有充分考慮到它可能帶來的危險。
為什么事情會突然發生?
事實上,這件事情的發生并不突然。在上周末的戲劇性變化發生之前,由于奧爾特曼加快推動OpenAI人工智能產品商業化,蘇茨克維爾及其盟友與奧爾特曼之間的不合已經持續了一年之久。
在OpenAI本月早些時候的首個開發者日上,奧爾特曼發布的一項工具,支持其他開發者使用公司的模型開發自己的人工智能工具。據美國有線電視新聞網(CNN)報道,包括蘇茨克維爾在內的多位公司高管,不認同這種做法。
微軟在此事中扮演什么角色?
微軟是OpenAI最大的金主,為其提供了運行強大模型所需要的算力。微軟在該公司已經投資了總計130億美元,因此它在這個過程中具有異常強大的影響力。據Axios爆料,在OpenAI公開宣布解雇奧爾特曼前一分鐘,微軟高管,包括納德拉,就已經獲悉了這個決定。
最初,納德拉表示即便奧爾特曼不再管理公司,微軟也會繼續與OpenAI的合作伙伴關系。但11月18日,微軟和其他投資者開始推動奧爾特曼回歸OpenAI,并最終雇傭了他和布羅克曼。
OpenAI的員工如何看待此事?
用一個詞來形容他們的反應就是:暴動。11月20日上午,在OpenAI的700名員工里,有超過500人簽署聯名信,表示如果董事會不辭職,他們就將辭職,并與奧爾特曼一起加入微軟。
奧爾特曼在OpenAI擔任首席執行官期間很受歡迎,員工對他離職的消息感到震驚。他們是在公司對外公開宣布之后,才知道了奧爾特曼被罷免的消息。
OpenAI即將簽署一份“收購要約”,這份邀約允許員工把未來的利潤分成權利出售給其他投資者。奧爾特曼的離職會影響這份協議的簽署,而且可能讓員工失去一次獲得巨大收益的機會。
聯名信直言不諱地批評董事會對奧爾特曼和布羅克曼離職的處理方式。信中寫道:“你們的行為表明,你們沒有監管OpenAI的能力。”穆拉蒂最早簽字,而在奧爾特曼離職之前與其存在分歧的董事會成員蘇茨克維爾也簽署了聯名信。
11月20日上午,蘇茨克維爾在X上寫道,他對參與了董事會罷免奧爾特曼的決定感到“深深的后悔”,引發了新一輪猜測。
接下來會發生什么?
微軟的計劃很清楚:它將在奧爾特曼領導的新研究團隊投入資金、人才和云算力等資源。奧爾特曼會繼續他在OpenAI的工作,開發日益成熟的大語言模型,并為它們設計商業應用,他的下屬可能是從OpenAI轉投微軟的前同事。
OpenAI的情況更加混亂,因為它要面對員工大規模辭職或董事會徹底重組或者兩種情況同時出現的威脅。公司還面臨員工集體跳槽加入微軟的可能性。與此同時,希爾宣布計劃對奧爾特曼被解雇的情況展開調查。
OpenAI還要平息投資者的不滿。OpenAI的關鍵人物離職,加入同樣是科技業巨頭的競爭對手,這令投資者感到不安。如果OpenAI在與微軟的人工智能競賽中最終落敗,投資者的投資可能就會打水漂。(當然,微軟也是投資者之一。)
對奧爾特曼而言,他擺脫了OpenAI作為一家非營利性公司的營利性子公司這種非同尋常的公司結構的束縛,就可以嘗試發展人工智能的各種途徑。但有人懷疑,長期在初創公司擔任高管的奧爾特曼,是否會覺得微軟這種龐然大物的僵化體制,令他感到束縛。此外,有消息人士對The Verge表示,奧爾特曼可能仍舊傾向于重回OpenAI。
這對人工智能的未來意味著什么?
無論發生了多少公司內部的陰謀,上周末的事件都表明了人工智能研究的高風險后果。
這并不是我們通常以為的科技公司人事變動:正如作家尤瓦爾·諾瓦·赫拉利所寫的那樣,與約會、叫車服務或送餐應用程序不同,人工智能的未來與人類的未來息息相關。赫拉利曾經警告:“我們所談論的可能是人類歷史的終結,是人類占主宰地位的時代走向終結。”(財富中文網)
譯者:劉進龍
審校:汪皓
OpenAI, the company leading the artificial intelligence boom and the maker of ChatGPT, had a rather tumultuous weekend.
The company has now had three CEOs in as many days, and its high-profile leader—cofounder and former CEO Sam Altman—has decamped to start a formidable rival embedded at Microsoft. Now even that seems in doubt, with some indications that Altman is still holding out hope for a return to OpenAI.
Altman’s departure puts OpenAI’s $86 billion valuation at risk, which would hurt investors, executives, and employees with a stake in the company, right as they were gearing up to enter a financial agreement that would have allowed them to sell portions of their highly valued shares.
And the events of last weekend underscore a larger debate that’s been going on since AI burst into the zeitgeist at the beginning of the year over how to develop a potentially transformational technology safely and ethically. Critics are wary that Silicon Valley’s “move fast and break things” ethos could have drastic consequences when it comes to a technology that some see as an existential threat to humans.
Give me the TL;DR: What happened at OpenAI last weekend?
On November 17 afternoon, OpenAI’s board removed Altman from his position, setting off feverish speculation in the tech world with a blog post saying that he hadn’t been “consistently candid in his communications.” The board didn’t elaborate on what he had not been candid about (and still hasn’t). The company’s CTO, Mira Murati, was appointed interim CEO.
There had been rumors of increasing tensions between Altman and his cofounder Ilya Sutskever, who had a seat on OpenAI’s board. Somewhat caught in the middle was company president, cofounder Greg Brockman, who was removed as board chair, although not fired from the company, when Altman was ousted. Within several hours, Brockman also resigned from his C-suite role in solidarity with Altman.
By November 18, it was reported that Murati was in talks to hire Altman and Brockman back at the company in different capacities. Altman seemed open to that possibility, even posting a picture of himself in the OpenAI office wearing a guest badge. “First and last time I wear one of these,” Altman wrote on X. The attempt to bring Altman back came after mass employee protests and Altman’s allies, including Microsoft executives, pushing for his return.
OpenAI’s board refused to relent, pulling a shock move and hiring a replacement for the replacement: Twitch founder Emmett Shear, who sold his company to Amazon for about $1 billion in 2014.
At this point, it became clear OpenAI wouldn’t allow Altman to return to the company. By early November 20 morning, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella had swooped in to hire Altman and Brockman to lead a newly founded research arm within the tech giant.
Who is Sam Altman, anyhow?
Altman has become a major figure in Silicon Valley and by far the most recognizable face in AI. Some have compared his ouster to Apple’s famously misguided firing of a young Steve Jobs.
Prior to working full-time at OpenAI, Altman was the president of Y Combinator, the most renowned startup incubator in Silicon Valley. Altman’s own startup, Loopt, which lets users share their locations with one another, was a member of the first class of startups incubated at Y Combinator.
Since then, he has become a wealthy and well-liked figure in tech. He famously does not have any equity in OpenAI, though he has invested in dozens of companies.
What did the board and Altman disagree over?
That’s still unclear, even to tech insiders. While there hasn’t been any definitive answer, several possibilities have been raised. Given that Altman is a serial entrepreneur, it is possible the board chafed at some of his current or planned business ventures, which might give the impression of a possible conflict of interest.
Altman had been in the Middle East looking for backers to start a new chip company to rival Nvidia, the dominant chipmaker in AI, according to Bloomberg. The rise of AI has led to a boom in demand for computing power.
Another possibility is that philosophical disagreements between Altman and Brockman and the board came to a head. Some board members with ties to the effective altruism movement (which disgraced crypto executive Sam Bankman-Fried was also a proponent of) believe AI poses a grave threat to humanity. Subscribers to that school of thought are wary of advancing AI just for the sake of technological development, while those in Altman’s camp wanted to push OpenAI’s research as far along as it could go. The board may have considered Altman and his allies too gung-ho about pushing forward the technology without properly considering the potential dangers.
Why did this happen so suddenly?
Well, in truth it didn’t. This weekend’s drama followed a year’s worth of tensions and concerns from Sutskever and his allies over Altman’s increasingly rapid push to commercialize OpenAI’s artificial intelligence products.
At OpenAI’s first developer day earlier this month, Altman announced a tool that would let other developers use its models to make their own AI tools. Some executives at the company, including Sutskever, were uncomfortable with this idea, according to CNN.
What’s Microsoft’s role in all this?
Microsoft is OpenAI’s biggest financial backer and provider of the computing power needed to run its powerful models, having invested a total of $13 billion in the company, so it has an unusually large influence in the proceedings. Executives from Microsoft, including Nadella, learned of OpenAI’s decision to fire Altman just one minute before it was announced publicly, according to Axios.
At first, Nadella said Microsoft remained committed to its partnership with OpenAI even though Altman would no longer be helming the company. On November 18, however, Microsoft joined other investors in pushing for Altman to return to OpenAI—and eventually hired him and Brockman.
How do OpenAI’s employees feel about this?
In one word: mutinous. On November 20 morning, over 500 of OpenAI’s 700 employees signed a letter saying they would quit and join Altman at Microsoft if the board didn’t resign.
Altman was a popular CEO during his time at OpenAI, and employees were shocked by the news of his departure, which they only found out about when the announcement was made public outside the company.
OpenAI was about to sign a “tender offer” that would have let employees sell some of their future profit participation rights to other investors. Altman’s departure puts that agreement in jeopardy, and could cost those employees the chance of a spectacular payout.
The letter criticizing the board’s handling of Altman’s and Brockman’s removals did not mince words: “Your conduct has made it clear you did not have the competence to oversee OpenAI,” it reads. Murati was the first signatory, and Sutskever, the board member who disagreed with Altman in the lead-up to his firing, also signed.
On November 20 morning, Sutskever set off a fresh wave of speculation when he wrote on X that he “deeply regrets” participating in the board’s decision to remove Altman.
What could happen next?
For Microsoft the plan is relatively straightforward: It will funnel resources—money, personnel, and cloud-computing power—into the new research arm Altman will lead. Altman will continue the same work he was doing at OpenAI, building increasingly sophisticated large language models and ideating commercial uses for them—perhaps with a staff including defectors from OpenAI.
Things at OpenAI seem much more tumultuous, as the threat of either a mass employee resignation or a total overhaul of the board—or both—looms. The company also faces the possibility of mass defections to Microsoft. In the meantime, Shear announced plans to investigate the circumstances of Altman’s firing.
And it will have to contend with disgruntled investors upset that OpenAI’s key man has departed for a rival that also happens to be one of tech’s biggest firms. If OpenAI ends up losing its lead in the AI race to Microsoft, then its investors may watch the value of their investments be wiped out. (And of course, Microsoft is one of these investors.)
As for Altman, free from the shackles of OpenAI’s unusual corporate structure as a for-profit subsidiary of a nonprofit, he can pursue any and all paths to advance AI. Some have wondered, however, whether the longtime startup exec will find the rigidity of a corporate behemoth like Microsoft constricting. Meanwhile, sources told The Verge that Altman may still be angling for a return to OpenAI.
What does this mean for the future of AI?
Regardless of the various corporate machinations that occur, the weekend’s events illustrate the high-stakes consequences of artificial intelligence research.
This is not your standard tech company personnel drama: Unlike dating, ride sharing, or food delivery apps, AI’s future is tied to the future of our species, as the author Yuval Noah Harari has written. “Potentially we are talking about the end of human history,” Harari has warned, “the end of the period dominated by human beings.”