Fiction writers should be hired as strategy consultants by the government

Kara Swisher, the longtime tech writer, podcaster and event producer, has a new book out. “Burn Book” dishes on tech bros.

She picked some of the nicer bros to flip roles and interview her for her book tour. Neat idea.

Open AI’s Sam Altman questioned her live on stage in San Francisco this month and the talk was published as an episode of her “On with Kara Swisher” podcast on March 11.

Go to the last moments of the interview, around 45 minutes in, to hear Kara touting her prediction skills. “We should try to imagine everything an autocrat could do with [artificial intelligence],” she says.

She’s right. Government has no imagination, and not just about AI. Could 911 have been prevented if the national security establishment had hired a roomful of sci-fi novelists to spitball potential novel terror threats? Analysts could take their ideas and spend just another afternoon evaluating the ideas. Couldn’t hurt.

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