Even if they don’t, they might be treated as such—to humanity’s great cost

But a new superintelligence may be coming, and it would upend humanity’s hierarchy of moral concern, thinks Susan Schneider

Some experts believe computers will need biological aspects to become self-aware

Yuval Noah Harari is a big-ideas guy. He’s known for penning tomes that tackle broad sweeps of history. (They reach big audiences, too. Sapiens, Mr Harari’s most popular book, has sold 25m copies.) The historian-cum-philosopher has now turned his attention…

Whatever the company’s flaws, its critics have taken a worryingly illiberal turn

The WNBA has become a culture-war battleground

Beyond America, the company risks becoming a victim of its own hype

We don’t care for others because they’re conscious. We believe they’re conscious because we care about them, argues Blaise Agüera y Arcas

New venues are inspired by a century-old tradition

Charles Lennox and James Wilson, a pair of Britons, played important roles in the struggle for independence

A Rorschach test with a side of meatballs

It wants more cash for its data—and more of people’s time

“The Renoir Girls” uses a bright canvas to sketch a sombre history

From tokenmaxxing to something more normal

Also on the daily podcast: Canada’s booming oil industry and farewell Dolly

Like America, China wants its laws to apply everywhere

How a glacial avalanche visits devastation

Fear of Vladimir Putin going fully rogue has paralysed the West for long enough, writes Radek Sikorski

The longest-serving prisoner in American history died on June 27th, aged 101

Asia demonstrates the promise and perils of AI in the public sector