Updated February 05, 2025 at 10:55 AM ET
Eric Schmidt, the former Google CEO, is thinking about artificial intelligence – how it interacts with humans, and how it may reshape democracy. Or replace it.
Schmidt coauthored Genesis, with former Microsoft executive Craig Mundie and the late Henry Kissinger, who died in 2023 about a year before the book's publication.
Kissinger, Schmidt says, had been thinking about the nature of reality "since before we were born," and used some of his final years exploring how technology might warp our understanding of reality.
Genesis includes a story from history: the Spanish conquistadors who invaded present-day Mexico in 1519. The ruling Aztecs seem to have mistaken the newcomers for gods. Their emperor first met them, took their advice, and then became their hostage before the conquistadors simply took over.
That's the unsettling start to a chapter that asks if AI might conquer us.
Schmidt talked about the book on Morning Edition. You can hear a longer version of our conversation using the button above.
Here are six key takeaways from our discussion:
AI will be available to almost anyone.
China's recent release of the new, less expensive, large language model DeepSeek, which startled the AI industry, creates "a problem of proliferation," Schmidt says. Almost anyone can enjoy the services of "a great philosopher and a great polymath and a great Leonardo da Vinci"—but that includes those of us who "are really, really evil."
AI can be a tool for demagogues.
These systems can become "the great addiction machines and the great persuaders," which a political leader could use to "promise everything to everyone," using messages built "that are targeted to each individual individually."
People are interacting with tech they don't fully grasp.
The coauthors considered the way that humans may respond to the increasing power of computers. Two scenarios particularly concern them: People may begin to worship this new intelligence and "develop it into a religion," or else "they'll fight a war against it."
Tech leaders may not grasp the implications either.
"The reason they don't get it right," Schmidt says, is that "these are really social and moral questions. The companies are doing what companies do. They're trying to maximize their revenue." What's missing, Schmidt says, is a social consensus "of what's right and what's wrong."
People might allow themselves to be governed by AI.
The book explores the ancient idea of a "philosopher king," a strong and absolute ruler, an ideal much discussed in history and rarely if ever achieved. What if the machine became that king?
"Artificial intelligence should ultimately be able to follow reasoning better than humans. So let's imagine you take an AI system and you give it a constitution," Schmidt says, adding that the thought experiment runs up against a problem: Who gets to write the constitution?
"Human societies have compromises. We allow for deviance. We allow for certain mistakes, but not others. If you wrote the perfect computer to tell people what to do, the people would revolt."
Having conducted this thought experiment, Schmidt says he prefers democracy,
The recent presidential inauguration showed a concentration of power.
"To some degree I was proud of my industry and impressed with my friends," Schmidt says of the tech executives who shared the inaugural stage with President Trump on Jan. 20. "On the other hand, I was concerned that there is a line that it's important business not cross. I would like our country to be run by our political leadership."
The book Schmidt co-authored shows that the businesses represented on stage have enormous implications for politics.
Editor's note: The Schmidt Family Foundation is among NPR's financial supporters.
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