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“AI is inevitable,” they say. “There’s a 10% chance AI will kill us all,” chased by: “But don’t worry, AI will cure cancer and solve climate change!” AI pushers declare these predictions as if they’re fact - and as if anyone with half a brain should jump on the train before it speeds past them.

But predictions, as @carissaveliz.bsky.social points out, aren’t truth. Truth doesn’t belong to the future; it only belongs to the past and the present. So why are we taking these prophecies as gospel?

@alixdunn.com sat down with @carissaveliz.bsky.social to talk about her new book, ‘Prophecy.’ She walks us down the well-worn path of prediction as a political tool: power brokers using forecasts to bend the future towards their will by convincing the rest of us that it’s destiny, not marketing.

We’re eyeing down the US midterms and other elections on the horizon. So this month we’re looking at politics—and the role AI is playing in elections—through one question: who gets to shape the future? Stay tuned for the rest of our series on prophecy and power 🔮