Ai, ai, sir. The new year we want, but don't quite expect. A noble letter! Alas, I wouldn't put quite so much faith in AI uptalk; 10 years ago you could replace that term with blockchain, before that, biotechnology, in the 90s the internet was the next saviour, or villain. Easy to hype such advances, as so many international organisations have done. AI is a technology. Complex and potentially transformative, but a technology. What matters are the minds and intentions of the human beings who use it, and the power humans decide to yield to it. And that goes for all sides. Recent world developments, including war and a resurgence of nationalism, do not augur well for a co-operative use of AI, or for 2044. Happy New Year anyway, dear Bart, let's hope you're right and that you get to send that letter for real in 20 years' time.