The A.I. Mind Meld

About a decade ago, the editor David Samuels wrote a brilliant profile of Ben Rhodes for the New York Times, focusing on the foreign policy advisor’s relationship to Barack Obama. Everyone in the White House agreed, Samuels reported, that Rhodes and the president had achieved a “mind meld.” It wasn’t that the former did all the thinking for the latter. Rather, Rhodes had comprehended Obama’s mind to the point that his thoughts were the president’s thoughts. Sometimes, he admitted, it was hard to tell “where I begin and Obama ends.”