"AI - Apocalyptic or Consequential"

 Like most of you, this is a subject I have been thinking a lot about. I have read reports from thoughtful people on both sides of the issue. So what you have here is my best guess. But I could be easily wrong.

 

On a separate issue, I was pleased that the Federal Reserve raised the benchmark rate by a quarter of a point. We need, as others have said, to let the bond market speak. And we need to recognize that there are creditors as well as debtors. Free markets, marking the decisions of millions of investors, generally do a good job in deciding values.

 

The photograph was borrowed from the Internet.

 

 

Sydney M. Williams

www.swtotd.blogspot.com

 

Thought of the Day

“AI – Apocalyptic or Consequential?”

September 17, 2026

 

"If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary

only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts

through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?"

                                                                                                                   Alexandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008)

                                                                                                                   The Gulag Archipelago, 1973

 

In searching for the right path forward, as regards AI and its further development, we cannot let emotion determine our response. Change has always wrought concerns. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was published as the Industrial Revolution was getting underway. It tapped into the psychological dread and ethical limits of tampering with nature. Henry Ford’s first car, the Ford Quadricycle, reached a speed of 20MPH, about twice as fast a horse could trot for long distances. Its noise and speed frightened those encountering it. And, of course, the decision to drop the Atomic bomb raised moral dilemmas. Yet, history suggests it saved lives, ending the war far earlier than otherwise. What would the world look like today if Nazi Germany beat us in its development and dropped an Atomic bomb on London?

 

AI, or artificial intelligence, is a branch of computer science focused on building computer systems that can perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence. As Daniel Huttenlochner wrote in last Wednesday’s The Wall Street Journal, “AI can make complex choices rather than merely execute specified actions...but accountability doesn’t transfer, because there is no one there to receive it.” It is not human. AI responds to tasks delegated to it by humans. An AK 47 is harmless until picked up by a human. It was not Boeing 767’s that flew alone into the two World Trade Center towers, but Islamic terrorist pilots who wanted to kill innocent civilians. AI requires a power source, as we require air to breathe. Evil exists in humans, not in machines. 

 

The possibility for advanced technology systems to do harm already exists. Hackers in Russia, Iran, North Korea and China are working with AI systems to disenable our banking systems, destroy energy sources and defense capabilities, as we are working on similar systems, for purposes both offensive and defensive. 

 

Differences of opinion are healthy and illustrative of a free people. We in North America and Western Europe are fortunate to live in countries ranked in the top quartile of Cato Institute’s Human Freedom Index. But we should not lose sight of the fact that nations competing for supremacy in AI, like China, rank near the bottom. China’s development of AI will not be held up by debate or protests.

 

Just as we need accountable politicians to put the needs of the Country above personal wants, we need answerable business leaders to ensure that what they produce is without unnecessary risk. If Dario Amodei of Anthropic or Sam Altman of OpenAI feel the risk of what they are creating is too great, they should slow their progress, without calling for government regulation. Otherwise they will be suspected of self-preservation, shutting out future competition. And Congress should debate the issue, and if guardrails are deemed necessary, they should be legislated. 

 

In the epigraph, Solzhenitsyn was expanding on an ancient precept. In Mark 7: 21-23, Jesus is quoted: “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts...All these evil thoughts come from within and defile a man.”  In 1788, James Madison wrote in Federalist 51: “If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.” Evil does exist, but it is not endemic to machines, computer programs, or artificial intelligence. If an outcome is bad, it stems from the individual who is designing the algorithm, or in programing and creating the system; it is not the software or machine that is evil. 

 

In debating the issue of AI, as for any issue like climate change and the coronavirus, we need reflection and common sense, not emotion. In the same article quoted above, Mr. Huttenlocher, who is dean of the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing wrote: “AI is an extremely powerful and beneficial technology. But accountability for its actions remains with the people and institutions that grant it the power to act...”

 

As for the question in the title. Artificial intelligence is certainly consequential. I am no expert, but from what I have read AI will increase productivity across myriad industries. It will help generate advances in defense and in the sciences, especially in healthcare. And it will generate jobs that today we cannot imagine. However, in the wrong hands, like any weapon, it could be apocalyptic, which is why it is critical that the United States – not China – be the industry’s leader.

"9/11 - 25 Years On"

 The first photo is of my wife, our son (born September 11, 1966) and me. I love the way my wife and son look at one another. The second (borrowed from the Internet) is the moment the second plane hit the South Tower.

 

 

Sydney M. Williams

 

More Essays from Essex

“9/11 – 25 Years On!”

September 11, 2026

 

“Time is passing. Yet, for the United States of America, there will be no forgetting September the 11^th.

We will remember every rescuer who died in honor. We will remember every family that lives

in grief. We will remember the fire and ash, the last phone calls, the funerals of the children.”

                                                                                                George W. Bush, President

                                                                                                Address to the UN General Assembly

                                                                                                November 10, 2001

 

September 11^th has long been meaningful to Caroline and me, for it was the day our first child was born in 1966. It was a Sunday. I drove my wife to Hartford Hospital in late morning, depositing her into the hands of obstetrician Dr. Charles Hamlin. He told me to go home and await the baby’s arrival. I watched the New York Giants tie the Pittsburg Steelers, 34-34. At 10:56pm our son, Sydney, was born.

 

...........................................................................

 

Thirty-five years later I was sitting at my desk at the New York institutional research and trading firm of Monness, Crespi, Hardt & Co. Son Sydney, his wife and their six-month old son were based in London where he worked for Deutsche Bank. However, they had flown to New York the previous Friday to celebrate his 35^th birthday. They had spent the weekend with us in Old Lyme. That Monday our son spent the day in Boston on business, then flew to New York that evening. Our daughter was at home with her 14-month-old daughter; her husband was in his New York office. Our youngest son and his wife were at their offices in the City. She had flown in early on the 11th from Buffalo. We all worked in midtown. 

 

News is the feedstock for trading desks; so while we all had our eyes on our computers, Bloomberg and CNBC kept us up. When we heard that American Airlines Flight 11, bound for Los Angeles from Boston, crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center at 8:46am, my immediate reaction was that it had to have been a small plane or helicopter. But seventeen minutes later when United Airlines flight 175, also from Logan and on its way to L.A., hit the South Tower we all knew we were being attacked. And, of course, a half hour later when we heard that American Airlines Flight 77 slammed into the Pentagon and when United Airlines Flight 93 crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania most of us were stupefied. The enormity of what had happened was difficult to process. And as an example of how we are victims of fate, our son Sydney was ticketed on UAL Flight 93 for the next day.

 

My first reaction was to check on our family. While we all worked in Midtown, we often visited clients in Lower Manhattan, including the World Trade Center. Our oldest son was still in his Midtown hotel room. Everyone else was in their office. My wife was driving, with our daughter-in-law and her six-months old son, to our daughter’s home in Rye, New York. I suggested they turn back, but she wanted us to be together. 

 

The stock exchange never opened that day. (It re-opened Monday, September 17, down 7.13% from its close on September 10. It took two months to recover to where it had been.) While the exact timelines of my activity have been lost to the mist of memory, I know that morning was spent fielding calls from clients across the country and around the world. Son Sydney came to my office and at some point we joined those walking north up Third Avenue, some covered with ash. We stopped at Weill-Cornell Medical Center on East 68^th Street to donate blood and then walked to our small apartment on East 64^th Street. My son-in-law walked three miles to 125^thStreet to catch a train back to Rye. Our younger son and his wife – she six-months pregnant with their first child – walked 40 blocks to their apartment in the East 80s.

 

...................................................................................

 

The only comparable attack on our nation (apart from the Revolution and the War of 1812) was the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, then home to the Pacific Fleet. Three years and nine months later Japan unconditionally surrendered. Amazingly, twenty-five years after Pearl Harbor Japan was the fourth largest economy in the world (West Germany was third) and was the United States’ second largest trading partner. 

 

This attack on our homeland was not conducted by a country or nation. It was a religious war that involved fanatics. The nineteen radicalized Islamists came from Saudi Arabia (15), United Arab Emirates (2), Egypt (1) and Lebanon (1). Most were trained in Afghanistan. The United States, with its emphasis on individual freedom, openness toward religion and equal treatment of women, is alien to the beliefs of Islamic extremists. Wars of religion are more difficult to combat, as Israel well knows, and as do Christians living in Nigeria and Buddhists living in what was once Tibet, now an autonomous region of the People’s Republic of China.

 

In contrast to the war with Germany and Japan, there has never been closure with al-Qaeda and the Taliban terrorists who took the lives of 2,977 civilians that day, including 415 first responders. Wars in the Middle East persist, and the Taliban control Afghanistan today, acting as its de facto government. While Osama bin Laden was killed in 2011, along with his successor Ayman al-Zawahiri eleven years later, al-Qaeda remains an “active and transnational network with an estimated 25,000 fighters worldwide – a significant increase in its numbers since 2001,” per the Combatting Terrorism Center at West Point, September 9, 2025.

 

...............................................................................

 

Everyone over the age of 35 knows where they were on the morning of September 11, 2001. It is a date, as President Bush said, we will never forget. The targets were not military personnel or facilities. The 19 Islamic terrorists wanted to kill civilians. We will always mourn those who died that day and have compassion for the families and friends they left behind. We wish there could be closure. But for Caroline and me 9/11 is also the birth date in 1966 of our first child, and for that we are eternally grateful.

 

..............................................................................

 

“Hello God, are You out there?

Can You hear us, are You listening anymore?

......................................

......................................

This is no way to be living.

We’re in great need of Your love.”

 

                                                                                                      “Hello God,” 

                                                                                                      Dolly Parton (1946-2026)

"Keeping Busy...But Slowing Down"

 The Photo – It may look like I am asleep, but I am busy checking my eyelids for holes!

 

Wishing you a happy (and busy) Labor Day weekend!

 

Sydney M. Williams

 

More Essays from Essex

“Keeping Busy...But Slowing Down”

September 5, 2026

 

“Keep busy at something; a busy person never has time to be unhappy.”

                                                 Attributed to Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)

 

Shortly after retiring as a stockbroker at the end of 2015, we moved to Essex Meadows. I had no place to go that first Monday morning. I awoke exhilarated – the day ahead was mine to do as I chose. But that feeling soon wore off. I had to keep busy. Essex Meadows offers residents many choices: Bridge and Mahjong, lectures and trips, croquet and bocce, music and committee memberships. There are art classes and writing groups. As well, surrounded by Essex Meadows’ hundred acres, and a thousand more in the adjacent Preserve, there are several paths on which to walk. There is no reason to be idle.

 

Early on, I walked each morning to Walgren’s to get the paper, and Caroline and I hiked many of the trails. But writing became my focus. Better than just keeping busy, writing allows me to be creative. Around 2000, while working as a stockbroker, and with the dot.com bubble percolating, I began to write a market note. About the same time, I started writing personal essays, which were collected in a book published in 2014, One Man’s Family. A second, Notes from Old Lyme, was published in 2016. In early 2008 I had begun writing more political essays, which I called ‘Thoughts of the Day.’ And in 2017 I began writing short essays on books I enjoyed, which I called ‘Burrowing into Books.’ Writing appealed. It was a means of passing on to my grandchildren something of myself but also provided the challenge of writing – having words say what I wanted them to say. My guiding light has been E.B. White’s Rule 17 from Elements of Style: “Omit needless words.”

 

Since we have been at Essex Meadows I have published two more books, Dear Mary in 2019, a collection of letters between my parents during World War II and Essays from Essex in 2023. Over the past ten years I have written 350 ‘Thoughts of the Day,’ 135 essays on books I have enjoyed, 56 ‘Essays from Essex,’ and 68 ‘More Essays from Essex.’ 

 

But my pace is slowing, especially in writing ‘Thoughts of the Day.’ Walking is more often confined to the corridors at Essex Meadows, and I now have the papers delivered. Nevertheless, I take pride in being occupied, while remembering those words attributed to the late journalist Bob Talbert (1936-1999): “Have you noticed that even the busiest people are never too busy to take time to tell you how busy they are.”

 

Now, where are my slippers and the TV remote?