The World Must Regulate Tech Before It’s Too Late

A century’s worth of change is about to be squeezed into a single decade. By 2030, entire industries are likely to be replaced with software code. Whole professions could wake up to find their livelihoods superfluous. Robots may be doing our chores, patrolling our streets, and fighting our wars.

Besides lives and jobs, entire nations could be upended: Digital currencies may destabilize global finance, robotics will likely accelerate the relocation of manufacturing, and the plunging cost of renewable energy will shift power away from petrostates. Nations will compete more fiercely than they have in generations. What’s more, all these changes will occur simultaneously and in ways that promise to be disorderly all around.

It’s therefore more urgent than ever that the nations of the world get together to hammer out a shared consensus on a broad range of technologies and their future use. The earthquake will not stop at borders or respect national policies—what’s urgently needed is a common understanding on the ethics of what’s permitted, what isn’t, and how to cooperate globally to make sure that countries, companies, research...