Technology

When the first real version of the game came to life on my screen—without any decorations, scoring, or anything, just the playing field and the pieces—I couldn't stop playing. I realized there was something truly magical about the game. But I could never have imagined what it would become; that was one of the biggest surprises.

Creator of Tetris, the iconic video game

Social media really orients us around our identity and our interests because of the way those connections are formed. It's going to suggest people for you to follow, groups for you to join, and so it slots you according to what you're most likely to be interested in based on your individual and group identity.

Disinformation researcher and Stanford Internet Observatory fellow studying online manipulation

Each of us needs a space to think deeply. The best space to think combines the comfort of paper and the advantages of digital technology—in a focused, distraction-free environment.

We now have all the tools to do it. Computers are a billion times more powerful, the data is vastly better, our understanding of psychology is vastly better – we have all the elements we need now to do these things and to do them well.

Complexity scientist & founding director of Santa Fe Institute's Complexity Economics program

I often joke that disproving quantum computing sceptics is the primary application of a quantum computer, with everything else being a bonus.

Theoretical computer scientist specializing in quantum computing and computational complexity

Quantum computing is thus not just a technological pursuit, but a deeply philosophical one, aiming to probe the very foundations of our world.

Theoretical computer scientist specializing in quantum computing and computational complexity

Quantum computing can be seen as a monumental effort to fully confront this exponential scaling that lies at the heart of quantum mechanics. By building and testing quantum computers, we are conducting an experiment that should either indisputably confirm this exponential nature, or overturn a century of established quantum theory.

Theoretical computer scientist specializing in quantum computing and computational complexity

This exponential scaling reveals the immense complexity lurking beneath the surface of reality. Taking full computational advantage of these quantum laws is the essence of quantum computing.

Theoretical computer scientist specializing in quantum computing and computational complexity

I think social media is a great example of this. It feels a little bit like social connection, but I often joke that it's the 'NutraSweet' version—it seems good but doesn't deliver the psychological benefit we expect.

Psychologist known for teaching popular "Science of Well-Being" course at Yale

What is especially compelling for us at Nissan with Formula E is that developing these cars generates a wealth of technical insights that benefit the future of electric vehicles—and vice versa. The flexibility inherent in electrification technology allows for a robust exchange of learnings between the sport and our core business.

It's been a high-speed laboratory for the most advanced electric cars in the world, which Formula E cars are.

One reason conflict resilience has declined is that it's become easier to fire off a snarky message or simply block someone and move on. If we share physical space, avoidance has limits; I can leave the room, but I might still run into you in the hallway. Online, though, I can just delete, mute, or block you with no further engagement.

Director of Stanford Law School's Negotiation and Mediation program

There's no real creativity in AI, since every path is governed by an algorithm. In other words, you can trace every step to see exactly why the computer produced a given output. It remains absolutely deterministic.

Co-Inventor of the Microprocessor & Founder of Zilog

If you can rank oboists and there's one who's clearly the best in the world, anyone, anywhere, can access that person. So why would you listen to the third-best oboist who happens to live next door?

Social platforms are bizarrely distortive of how the social world works—soon to be topped by AI, which I think will be even more fundamentally, and even more bizarrely, distortive. What these platforms do is take local phenomena and turn them into global phenomena.

We're not really creating a specific artefact—we're setting a direction for a process. There's no upper limit to that process; we're simply saying we'll create something capable of becoming smarter and smarter.

AI Safety Researcher & Director of Cybersecurity Lab at University of Louisville