ABSTRACT
The ‘Age of the Cognitive Machines’ is the most drastic economic transition since the Second Industrial Revolution. This transition is driven by the confluence of multiple technological innovations which result in the ‘Rise of Intelligent Machines’, understanding ‘Machines’ as a concept beyond its physical connotations, and leveraging the change of paradigm in machine intelligence, an evolution from ‘Turing Machines’ to ‘Inference Machines.’ This transition will result in rapid increases of productivity of goods and services, shifts in the structure of our societies and cultures, major disruptions for global commerce and the balance of international power, and growing income gaps driven by technological unemployment and the nature of wealth creation. Beyond the economic opportunities and challenges posed by artificial intelligence, it will transform the role of the human species and pose significant risks for the systemic viability of western democracies in a world of increasing complexity driven by intelligent machines, requiring a new paradigm of national and global governance.
