Your employer is (probably) unprepared for AI

Turn your thoughts to the humble tractor. No one quite knows who invented it or when, but all agree that it took a surprisingly long time for such a productivity-enhancing device to make a mark. As late as the 1950s, less than half of American farms reported having the things. Looking at the sluggish rate at which firms adopt new technologies, my colleagues suspect that something similar may one day be said of artificial intelligence. Companies that grasp the opportunities of AI are likely to reap huge benefits; others (and their employees) may be left in the dust.?

Diplomatic dust-ups threatened to upend the NATO gathering in Vilnius last week. But in the end President Volodymyr Zelensky left rather happier than when he arrived. Good, we argue : Vladimir Putin’s war has left NATO stronger (and, with Sweden set to join, bigger); Ukraine’s path to join the alliance has been eased; and, crucially, Western pledges to support Ukraine’s defence look set to endure (see our new report from Zaporizhia, a city close to the frontline—as well as to Europe’s largest nuclear power plant). This matters, not least to help protect against the global threat that a second term for Donald Trump would present.

China’s second-quarter GDP results, released today, offered an important clue to the pace of the post-covid recovery of the world’s second-biggest economy. Economic growth slowed to 0.8%, down from 2.2% in the first quarter. Worrying signs abound, from a wobbly property market to rocketing youth unemployment and a flirtation with deflation. Look out for our coverage.??

Those seeking refuge from such gloom may be drawn to the sparkly world of Barbie . Those seeking more of it may instead flock to Christopher Nolan’s take on Robert Oppenheimer. Whether you incline to fantastic life in plastic, or to death, the destroyer of worlds, we hope you will enjoy our view on what the respective fortunes of the two films, to be released this week, will reveal about our times.

Elsewhere, we will be keeping an eye on Thailand, where a young reformist’s efforts to take office as prime minister look set to be stymied by the military establishment; Britain, where a young prime minister’s efforts to retain office look set to be damaged by voters in three by-elections; and Tesla, whose slightly less young boss’s efforts to ruin his reputation by running Twitter into the ground look set to be balanced by a strong set of results from his EV firm. (We will also be wondering what has happened to Qin Gang, China’s foreign minister, who has not been seen in public since June.)

If you’re anything like me, your early forays into Threads, the fast-growing Twitter-style app from Meta , will have been met largely with branded jokes and platitudes from Instagram celebrities. Our own account , growing quickly, will help liberate you from the clutches of corporate memes and bronzed influencers.?

On to your feedback. Joe Roach in Tasmania threatens to cancel his subscription the moment we allow AI to “directly generate content.” I’m happy to reassure you, Joe, that everything under the Economist brand (including this newsletter) will remain resolutely the work of flesh-and-blood humans. And Robert Townsend in British Columbia, alarmed by the American decision to dispatch cluster munitions to Ukraine, says the conflict looks “more and more like a war of Russia v USA—which happens to be occurring in Ukraine”. I was in Kyiv a few months ago, Robert, and I can report that that is certainly not how it seems to Ukrainians.

Which industries do you think will prove most impervious to disruption from AI models? We welcome your answers to this, and thoughts on anything else, to [email protected].?

Tom Nuttall, Deputy digital editor

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Zaporizhia braces itself for Russian nuclear tricks

Initially Lida Popruha, 45, was not sure what to make of claims that Russia was preparing an attack at the nuclear power plant. She knew that her flat in Khortytsky, a district of the city of Zaporizhia, sat inside a potential evacuation zone. But would there really be an explosion? And if so, would she be evacuated? But then came a moment of clarity. Ms Popruha recalled the humiliating experience of being caught behind Russian lines in her family home south of the town of Huliaipole a year ago. That had required a fraught escape with her two children to Zaporizhia.

NATO’s promises to Ukraine mark real progress

As he headed to NATO’s gathering in Vilnius, a tetchy Volodymyr Zelensky called it “unprecedented and absurd” that Ukraine was apparently not being given a clear promise of speedy membership of the alliance. If that was meant as a last-ditch attempt to twist arms, it failed. The final communiqué, as he feared, refers to a need for conditions to be met and for allies to agree, even as it avoids dates and timelines.

Your employer is (probably) unprepared for artificial intelligence

To understand the?impact that artificial intelligence may have on the economy, consider the tractor. Historians disagree about who invented the humble machine. Some say it was Richard Trevithick, a British engineer, in 1812. Others argue that John Froelich, working in South Dakota in the early 1890s, has a better claim. Still others point out that few people used the word “tractor” until the start of the 20th century. All agree, though, that the tractor took a long time to make a mark. In 1920 just 4% of American farms had one. Even by the 1950s fewer than half had tractors.

Realism with “Oppenheimer”, or escapism with “Barbie”?

They make an intriguing pair of rivals: he in a brown suit and porkpie hat, she in a gingham dress and matching hair bow. His domain is a vast scientific-research facility in New Mexico; hers is a fluorescent pink party house with a slide. J. Robert Oppenheimer (played by an Irish actor, Cillian Murphy) spends his days corralling the finest scientific minds in America to create a nuclear bomb—work a colleague calls “the most important thing to ever happen in the history of the world”. Barbie (played by an Australian actress, Margot Robbie) may seem like she has the perfect life, but she has existential worries too. Do her friends and fellow dolls, she wonders, “ever think about dying?”

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