Artificial intelligence is developing rapidly, and ethical norms are in urgent need of simultaneous evolution. Artificial intelligence can create symphonies, design proteins, and defeat chess masters, but the right to judge right and wrong is always in the hands of humans.

Last week my son asked me: "Dad, can robots pray?" What he really cares about is not the machines, but us humans.

The artificial intelligence of 2025 can compose symphonies, design proteins, and defeat chess masters—but still cannot tell right from wrong. We are experiencing humanity’s most dazzling paradox: tools are getting smarter, but humans haven’t evolved.

American futurist Ray Kurzweil, who predicted many of today’s technological realities, believes that within ten years we will have cured most diseases, printed replacement organs and reverse-engineered the brain. He predicts that by 2045, humans will merge with machines, ushering in what he calls the “singularity”—the moment when artificial intelligence and human intelligence become one.

However, Swedish philosopher Nick Bostrom, who works at the University of Oxford in the UK, and others warn that this development trajectory could lead to disaster - the systems we have built to perfect life may actually kill it. American entrepreneur Elon Musk calls artificial intelligence "more dangerous than nuclear weapons." The RAND Corporation, an American think tank, predicts that algorithm upgrades may trigger a nuclear war before 2040.

Wisdom is better than intelligence

Whether this century will usher in renaissance or destruction will depend on a quality that cannot be codified or automated: intelligence.

Despite all the progress, we have yet to match technological power with moral imagination. We gain abundance without balance, connection without community, knowledge without humility. The real danger is not that machines become more like humans—it is that humans become more like machines, losing their souls in the pursuit of speed and efficiency.

The human story has always been shaped by invention. The wheel, the compass, the printing press, the microchip—each invention expanded the boundaries of our capabilities, but not necessarily our possibilities. The Industrial Revolution lifted billions of people out of poverty, but it also gave rise to mechanized warfare in the twentieth century. Nuclear energy once promised unlimited energy—and ended up giving birth to Hiroshima.

Today, as we stand on the threshold of quantum computing, gene editing, and general artificial intelligence, history is repeating itself. Tools are changing rapidly, but ethics are faltering.

We need a new moonshot—not just scientifically, but spiritually.

In 1962, when President John F. Kennedy called for the United States to land on the moon, he was talking about more than just rockets. He calls for courage—moral courage. We need to regain this spirit, not to conquer space, but to govern space; not to colonize Mars, but to protect the earth.

The meaning of progress is no longer “faster, cheaper, smarter” but must be “smarter, fairer and more humane”. The standard for judging technology should not only be what it creates, but also what kind of human beings it shapes.

Imagine if every cutting-edge technology—from artificial intelligence to biotech to quantum computing—had a “humility checkpoint.” Before deployment, creators must not only answer "can it be built?" but also think about "whether it should be built." They must not only consider "what it can do" but also predict "who it may hurt." Just as engineers stress-test bridges, societies should examine the moral load carried by these tools that shape their destiny.

The light of conscience has flashed. The European Union (EU) passed the world's first "Artificial Intelligence Act" to set up guardrails for the power of algorithms; the Vatican's "Rome Artificial Intelligence Ethics Initiative" brings together scientific and religious leaders to ensure that machines serve human dignity; universities from Stanford University in the United States to Tel Aviv University in Israel have now directly integrated ethics into computer science and engineering courses, treating moral reasoning as a core competency rather than an afterthought.

Yet we must go further. Countries should establish a Commission on the Future of Humanity, bringing together scientists, ethicists, artists and religious leaders. Their mission: to raise fundamental questions that markets and governments rarely touch. What's the point of all this? What kind of civilization are we becoming?

The greatest danger of our time is not malice—it’s inertia. Human power drifts silently and unimpeded in a directionless state. We are hurtling toward a future that few have stopped to imagine.

Yet hope remains. History shows that our moral leaps can be as profound as our technological advances. We abolished slavery, expanded the boundaries of rights, defeated disease, and restored our common humanity in a moment of deep division. Every breakthrough begins with a tiny bit of imagination—someone who dares to believe that the world can be different and act as if the world is different already.

The question we face is no longer whether we can build smarter machines. We can do it. The key lies in whether we can create wiser human beings; whether we can use wisdom not only to solve problems, but also to sublimate our souls.

The next great revolution may not be digital, biological, or quantum, but a moral revolution. Where will it begin? Perhaps, it starts with an ancient and timeless new understanding: technology is a mirror. What is reflected in the mirror depends on the person standing in front of it. With this ambition in mind, wisdom will prevail.

What kind of thinking does the mirror of technology reflect? Welcome to chat in the comment area.

The author of this article is the author of "NEXT: A Brief History of the Future" (Published by Gefen)