I occasionally browse through The Financial Times, but I never read any of the articles. Titles and bylines are more than enough for me. Thus I came across an article by a certain Mark Galeotti a month ago or so. The title attracted me at once: “The Berlin spy case reminds us that real espionage is banal and human.” The same holds for the byline: “Technological tools cannot replicate the creativity and observation skills of people.” I jotted all of this down in one of my files crammed with sundry notes, and I kept returning to these words over and over again. On the one hand, I was pleased with Galeotti’s praise of human espionage proficiencies; on the other, I felt kind of sorry for the engineers behind the technological tools currently used by spies. After all, I am an MIT alumnus! Deep down, I am convinced that artificial intelligence or AI will eventually beat humans in most fields, espionage included. One way or another, humans are sure to be outclassed by so-called machines in creativity and observation skills any time soon. It is only a question of time, I am pretty sure. And espionage is a worthy challenge to the engineers at MIT, Stanford, Imperial College, and so forth. I can imagine many a crafty engineer reading the article in question with pursed lips and furrowed eyebrows. As ever, though, the trick that could change everything would be letting AI free at last (“Free from Evolution,” May 1, 2021). The mother of all tricks, too. Anyhow, Galeotti’s praise of humans will become outdated sooner or later. Three cheers for the espionage challenge!