Intelligence Isn't Power

Arvind Narayanan, a Princeton computer scientist and co-author of the influential essay “A.I. as Normal Technology,” argues that artificial intelligence is not an unprecedented “alien mind” but follows the pattern of past revolutionary technologies. This framing, he contends, provides a historical roadmap for governance and counters the narrative that AI requires entirely novel regulatory approaches. The conversation examines why raw intelligence does not automatically translate into power, and what past technological disruptions teach us about integrating AI.