What does it mean to be AI-first?
Whether you believe a utopian or dystopian vision of the future of AI, or subscribe to the normal technology hypothesis, AI is the undeniable latest revolution facing humanity. Yes, AI has been around in various guises for decades, but there are two things that make AI different to any previous technology revolution that we’ve faced, from the invention of the printing press to the internet.
The first is that AI is a general purpose technology, a bit like electricity. This means that it has broad application. You can use it to do lots of different things. As Tristan Harris put it, when you make technological progress in nanotechnology, you only make progress in nanotechnology. But when you make progress in intelligence, you make progress in every field of human endeavour. Electricity changed manufacturing, transportation, communication, etc. AI is changing it again and changing things electricity didn’t.
The second is that the twenty-first century is the first time in human history where data and technology are so interwoven into our lives, that a general purpose technology like AI will effect every single aspect of everything that goes on in society.
Together, these two factors – wide-sweeping change and interconnectedness – create the backdrop for the discussion on being AI-first.
As a wide-sweeping force for change across society, now and into the future, AI has to be considered from every possible perspective. That means considering economics & productivity, ethics & inequality, technology & data, philosophy, history, anthropology, power & politics, art & creativity, energy use & environmental impact, psychology & sociology, academics and human advancement, ownership & responsibility & rights, and so many more perspectives than I can list.
If you want to call yourself AI-first then you need to have considered what AI means from all of these perspectives.
You can’t speak about being AI-first and still have a narrow perspective on AI because that would deny the reality of it as a general purpose technology that will become increasingly interwoven into every aspect of society and every branch of human endeavour.
If you’re a CEO using the term to justify lay-offs and increase shareholder confidence, then you’re just playing the same old game, you aren’t being AI-first.
So, if AI does become normal technology (which personally I think is most likely) and doesn’t lead to the annihilation of the human race or a golden age of peace and abundance for all, then it will inevitably reinforce the inequalities of how society works today. The only way to change that is to change how we think about it.