Agree with him or not on the issue of AI capabilities and AI risk it is clear that Mr Hinton feels an admirably acute sense of responsibility for the potentially dire implications of this technology. In my view these risks are primarily focused on two inter-related areas - ethically, the denial of the significance of our human nature, and politically, the subversion of democracy. theguardian.com/us-news/2026…

The Greek inheritance is a deeply complex one, and one can certainly question Mr Rubio’s rather Nietzschean take on it (the ethics of virtue does not “chafe at all boundaries and limits”, for example, but finds some limits integral to true human flourishing). But it is refreshing to see a contemporary statesman addressing matters at this sort of intellectual level, whether or not one agrees with him. However, one sadness here is that Mr Rubio’s political opponents - self-styled progressives - have done so much to deny themselves the ability to engage positively with the Greek legacy by adopting a bland cultural relativism that calls into question the very idea of objective standards of excellence. Yet the craving for such standards remains even as so many in authority, including in elite academic institutions, form their own identities around the denial of their very existence …

"As for leaders such as Johnson and Burnham, they demand a course of action in opposition yet lack the guts to do it in power. This has gone on long enough. Greece should drop its obsession with formal “ownership”. London should dispatch its 17 pediment sculptures on indefinite loan to Athens. Then, together, all of Europe can rejoice." theguardian.com/commentisfre…