It’s Monday, September 14. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: Coleman Hughes on converting Ku Klux Klan members. Chris Wright on how to win the energy race. Arthur Brooks on when tragedy brings us together—and when it doesn’t. All that and more.

But first: Sounding the AI alarm.

Last year, I saw a chart that has been stuck in my head ever since. It was published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, and it looked like this:

What it shows, in graphic form, is the bewilderingly wide range of ways AI could transform our lives: It could lead to never-before-seen prosperity (that’s the red line), it could give us something like the normal rate of economic growth (the orange and green lines), or it could end the human race (the purple line).

The chart stayed with me because it tells, in stark terms, not just an economic story, but the story of our time: the creation, by us, of something smarter than us, and the profound and unpredictable ways in which that could change what it means to be human.

For a week now, the headlines have been fixated on the single most alarming question in this conversation: Could AI kill us all?

Last week, a researcher resigned from Anthropic, warning that the top AI companies were advancing the technology at a dangerous speed. Over the weekend, something remarkable happened: The heads of those companies more or less conceded the point. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei announced his company’s plans to slow its development of cutting-edge AI. Then his rivals Sam Altman of OpenAI and Elon Musk of xAI said they agreed.

In a matter of hours, a new consensus among some of the most important people on the planet had revealed itself. It is a consensus about the most high-stakes question imaginable. It is worth taking seriously, and interrogating thoroughly. That is what Niall Ferguson and Tyler Cowen do in our lead stories today.

First, Niall Ferguson takes us through the latest unnerving AI developments, the forces driving the chances of catastrophe higher, and what, if anything, we can do about it. Don’t miss this deep dive into the most important issue in the world right now.

Tyler Cowen is not one to follow the herd. He has long been skeptical of the doomsaying around the new technology and, as he explains in his column today, the last few days have not changed that. Tyler argues that the slowdown announced by the AI titans is not what it seems. Read his latest to understand why.

—Oliver Wiseman

Arthur Brooks • U.S. Politics

Arthur Brooks: Why Americans No Longer Grieve Together

One gorgeous Tuesday morning 25 years ago, Arthur Brooks was riding a cab into New York City for a day of meetings when he looked out the window to see the World Trade Center’s North Tower explode. Almost everyone has a version of that horror story, but they also likely remember something positive that happened right after: America came together. Why do we find each other in the face of tragedy? In his latest column, Arthur breaks down the science on the subject—and explains why that unity has faded today. Read story ›

Lucy Biggers • U.S. Politics

Chris Wright on Energy Abundance

Will America have the energy to power its future? In the era of soaring gas prices, rising global conflict, and burgeoning AI revolution, households nationwide are contemplating this question. Chris Wright, the head of the Trump administration’s Department of Energy, has built his entire career around answering it. Today, he tells Lucy Biggers how he is overhauling our energy system, and why the future of American industry depends on it. Read story ›

Coleman Hughes • Conversations with Coleman

How Do You Talk a Klansman out of the Klan? Ask Daryl Davis.

As a black man from Chicago, Daryl Davis should hate members of the Ku Klux Klan. Instead, he’s spent the past 40 years befriending Klansmen—and even convinced over 200 to leave their hate groups for good. What gave him the courage to face them, and how did he get these ideologues to change their mind? This week on Conversations with Coleman, Daryl takes us inside his lifelong battle with the KKK, and explains what it taught him about the reality of race relations today. Watch now ›

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