Gaslit By An AI?

So there you are reading a book when you want to go back to find a reference to Paul Samuelson’s remarks on epsilon and Gertrude Stein, but you can’t seem to find it. Naturally, you consult the index on Stein and Epsilon – far too many references to Samuelson. Then you come up with an idea, ask an AI where the reference is in the book. But this leads to a scary conversation with Google Gemini …

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Pepys Day 2026: There He Goes Again!

Pepys Day 2026 takes place on Friday, 4 September 2026. The event features guided walking tours and historical ceremonies commemorating the diarist’s accounts of the Great Fire of London – https://bit.ly/4opBzvS.

In September 1666 the Great Fire of London swept through the City. Man-about-town Samuel Pepys witnessed and recorded the events of that extraordinary week. The fire started at 01.00 on 2 September and by mid-morning Pepys was writing about it in his diary. The fire was put out on 6 September.

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Ordinary Wisdom For Extraordinary Machines

Remarks to: World Technology Congress, Thursday, 23 April 2026, Lake Como, Italy

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,

  1. The Ethics Manual We Never Wrote

I want to begin with a confession. I came to Lake Como this week telling myself it was a professional duty. But with this weather and this location, I have since revised that position. The view is magnificent, but the problem we’re here to discuss is also extraordinary: we have built the most powerful cognitive tools in human history, and we shipped them without an ethics manual.

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