We have two covers this week—and the one in our North American and Asian editions was designed by a computer. It is part of our report on the promises and perils of foundational AI, the latest twist on deep learning, a technique that rose to prominence ten years ago and now dominates the field of artificial intelligence. Foundational AI can use a snatch of melody to compose music that sounds as if you wrote it, or solve a problem by creating hundreds of lines of computer code. To come up with the cover, our silicon designer used the title of our lead editorial—“Artificial intelligence’s new frontier”—and nothing more. In a sense, foundational AI is merely the descendant of the power looms and steam engines that hastened the Industrial Revolution. But it is also a revolutionary new class of machine, because it grasps the symbols in language, music and programming and uses them in ways that seem creative. A bit like a human. Foundation models could be used in lots of applications, from helping find new drugs to selecting charts from datasets and trawling huge databases to open up new areas of inquiry. But they also stir up worries—of malevolent machines, bias and the capture of the most powerful tool ever invented by governments and tech giants. In our European editions, we look at how economic decline has become a chronic British disease. The headlines this week were dominated by the Conservative Party’s lukewarm endorsement of Boris Johnson as prime minister. The irresolute blow the rebels inflicted leaves Britain in the hands of a washed-up cabinet mouthing grandiloquent promises it cannot honour. Unfortunately, that does not begin to capture the wider problem that he and his country face. Britain is stuck in a 15-year rut. It likes to think of itself as a dynamic, free-market place, but its economy lags behind much of the rich world. Whereas average annual GDP growth over the decade preceding the global financial crisis of 2007-09 was 2.7%, the new normal is now closer to just 1.7%. In 2022 GDP per person will be more than 25% lower than America’s, measured at purchasing-power parity. Britain has been declining against America and Germany since the mid-2000s. Had Britain’s productivity growth rate not fallen after the financial crisis, GDP per person in 2019 would have been £6,700 ($8,380) higher than it is. The idea that Britain has a problem is not new, but when it comes to growth, Britain’s politicians will the ends but not the means. Britain suffers from complacency, born of centuries as a first-rank economy, and Johnsonian bluster only exacerbates it. Over the coming months we will look at what has gone wrong and how to fix it. If Britain is to avoid a bleak future it must grasp reform. That will require a once-in-a-generation show of political courage, persuasion and policy ingenuity. |