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There is something new under the sun. Many of our beliefs and certainties may be coming to an end. Like the ancient navigators contemplating the immensity of the oceans, full of promises, mysteries, and dangers, we are once again facing the unknown. There is a feeling in the air that a major transformation is about to take place. A revolution, perhaps. Something grand, like the invention of the printing press, which expanded human knowledge exponentially, or the Enlightenment, which reshaped social life, culture, and politics. The future has never felt so imminent and unpredictable.

Given the seemingly infinite possibilities of technology, there is only one reliable nautical chart: the values that have long guid- ed the progress of civilization and the evolution of the human condition on Earth. Whether secular or mythical, they originate from Greece and extend through the Torah, the Gospels, Buddha, Thomas Aquinas, Kant, and many others who have shaped the ethical heritage of humanity. But there is a dramatic point here: the dizzying scientific progress that we have witnessed over the centuries has not been matched by a corresponding ethical—and even spiritual—evolution in the human condition. Goodness, true justice and solidarity are often neglected in a world plagued by extreme poverty, unjust inequality, wars, and a domestic and international order in which some win all and others always lose. It is against this backdrop that we face the topic of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its potential to make the world better, worse, or even to lead to its annihilation.

Perhaps no topic in the history of civilization has sparked such widespread and simultaneous reflection. In the media, in pubs, in universities, at major international events, and in expert meetings, one discussion subject has become omnipresent: AI. No aspect of its implications has gone unexamined, engaging both the brightest minds and the most ordinary citizens. This text is part of a wealth of writings that aim to capture the spirit of the times, chart a course, and steer history in the right direction. It seeks to avoid the pitfalls that could endanger, if not our very lives, then at least humanity as we know it. Faith in science, like every belief, must not lead to fanaticism. We need to set courses and limits. Here is yet another attempt to do so.