May 2026
New technology often promises to solve problems. That’s what happened starting in the 1920s, when adding lead to gasoline promised to solve a noisy knocking in automobile engines. Yet that additive created another problem, when car exhaust full of lead polluted both air and soil and caused serious public health concerns. In “Where Are We Driving?,” Douglas Sackman argues that the history of technology should prompt us to ask what risks artificial intelligence might bring. Big promises are being made about how AI could revolutionize education. But what problems might it introduce?
Photo: Gene Daniels/US National Archives and Records Administration, Records of the Environmental Protection Agency, 545246/public domain
Staff