Moloch is an evil, child-sacrificing god from the Hebrew bible, its name now is used to describe a pervasive dynamic between competing groups or individuals. Moloch describes when a locally optimum strategy, leads to negative effects on a wider scale. The addictive nature of social media, the mass of nuclear weapons on the planet, and the race towards a dangerous AI, all have Molochian dynamics to blame. Ken Mogi offers us hope of a way out.

With the rapid advancements of artificial intelligence systems, concerns are rising as to the future welfare of humans. There is this urgent question whether AI would make us well-off, equal, and empowered. As AI is deeply transformative, we need to observe well where we are heading, lest we should drive head-on to the wall or off the cliff with full speed.

One of the best scenarios for human civilization would be a world in which most of the work is done by AI, with humans comfortably enjoying a permanent vacation under the blessing of basic income generated by machines. One possible nightmare on the other hand would be the annihilation of the whole human species by malfunctioning AI, through widespread social unrest induced by AI generated misinformation and gaslighting or massacre by runaway killer robots.