Tech Titans See Humanity's Hope in Superbabies

If you're worried about AI wiping us out, a number of the people who helped build it think they've found the countermeasure: smarter babies. In Mother Jones, Abby Vesoulis reports on a growing movement among tech elites and biotech startups that sees embryo screening and, eventually, gene editing as a way to produce future humans brilliant enough to understand—and control—superintelligent AI. As the story explains, a small circle of tech billionaires—including Peter Thiel, Sam Altman, and Marc Andreessen—are funding a new wave of startups aiming to edit human embryos, ostensibly to eliminate disease. But the ambition doesn't stop there. Some backers are quietly chasing a far more controversial goal: engineering children with enhanced intelligence.

The pitch is rooted in real promise. Gene editing could prevent devastating inherited conditions. But moving from single-gene diseases to complex traits like IQ is vastly more complicated, involving thousands of genes scientists barely understand. "It's a bit like playing with the dials on an unlabeled control panel, a level of unknown that gives many scientists and bioethicists pause," writes Vesoulis. Critics warn the effort veers into modern-day eugenics, raising ethical red flags about inequality, consent, and unintended consequences. Read the full story, which points out the irony that this "superbabies" movement to tame AI "is capturing the fancy—and the wallets—of the same billionaires who bankrolled the AI revolution."