In the rare instances the Supreme Court has overturned a constitutional precedent, it has typically been to expand, not revoke, a right. That may be changing for abortion rights, and states and their constitutions could find themselves even fiercer battlegrounds.

In a nascent democracy, should accountability for alleged misdeeds be sacrificed on behalf of national unity? That’s a question Libyans are grappling with in a presidential election with few rules.

How can Americans who disagree about education talk productively? Two educators with opposing views wanted to find out for themselves. The result is a book and podcast with ideas for moving forward. 

Sometimes, the best part of a reporting trip doesn’t make it into a story. While reporting at the species lab for our next story, I got the chance to witness an incredible mating dance performed by an Andes condor at the bird rehab facility. Alas, the female condor who was the object of all the flapping and fluttering was not buying, and the male retreated to his corner, rebuffed.

Instead of trying to stop students from fighting, this difference-maker helps them turn an impulsive response into a disciplined tool. Among the results are boxing championships – and life skills.

Did humanity just become genuinely smarter about artificial intelligence?

That could be the case with a 39-page set of recommendations released last week by the United Nations.

The document, a result of three years of work by hundreds of experts, was endorsed by 193 countries. For the first time on a global scale, it lays out universal values for the ethics needed to ensure that AI-driven technologies – from facial surveillance to driverless cars – “deliver for good.” Those values include transparency, social inclusion, accountability, and “explainability.” 

“These new technologies must help us address the major challenges in our world today, such as increased inequalities and the environmental crisis, and not deepen them,” said Gabriela Ramos, an assistant director-general at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

The new UNESCO standard is seen only as an “incentive” for nations to build ethics into their AI systems. Yet it adds to other recent efforts to bring a higher order of thinking to the use of computer algorithms now reaching a scale and speed not even imagined in the best of science fiction going back to Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel “Frankenstein.”

One of the most active efforts at setting AI standards is the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence. This coalition of 20 countries, set up in 2020 by France and Canada, aims to ensure that advanced technologies promote the values of democracy and equality.

The ethical challenges inherent in AI – especially robotic military weapons and mass surveillance – are many. The UNESCO report, for example, says the ultimate responsibility for AI technologies must lie with humans and that even the most intelligent devices “should not be given legal personality themselves.”

The challenges posed by machines able to learn and adapt are in turn forcing humans to learn and adapt. This helps expand human intelligence, forces a higher concept of consciousness, and puts a focus on the source of intelligence itself, beyond material origins. As more qualities of human thinking are built into AI, such as trust and empathy, the more the designers and regulators of AI must stretch their own thinking.

The UNESCO report is a good example of that progress. Humanity can be smarter, in a very tangible way, and “deliver for good.”