Nuclear exit + Merkel award

Dear Reader,

• Which technological novelties should we fear? With the development of large language models like chatGTP, that’s a question that is particularly timely. Advocates say that these nascent AI systems could find the cure to cancer; opponents say that they will eventually take over the world and crush the human race. There are parallels here with the debate in the 20th century around the discovery of how to split an atom. A lot of arms treaties and regulation of energy production later, we seem to have reached a delicate truce with that technology whereby we draw on its benefits while creating massive deterrents to harmful use. Particularly, now that we have discovered that we need reliable forms of energy that don’t release CO2 into the atmosphere, the benefits of nuclear fission have taken on a new significance. That’s why Finland was able to announce today that it opened a next generation nuclear reactor that would provide 14 percent of its entire electricity needs. Sweden, …