Is AI a “Normal Technology”?
This week’s good read is in fact a great read—from a thought leader whom I have followed for many years: Tim O’Reilly. He is asking a simple, but impactful question: ‘Is AI a “normal technology”?’
At its core, it’s all about the question of the speed of innovation vs. the speed of transformation:
“[…] while AI is indeed transformational, it is far from unprecedented. Instead, it is likely to follow much the same patterns as other profound technology revolutions, such as electrification, the automobile, and the internet. That is, the tempo of technological change isn’t set by the pace of innovation but rather by the pace of adoption, which is gated by economic, social, and infrastructure factors, and by the need of humans to adapt to the changes.”
In this respect, AI is actually a normal technology, i.e. AI is just a tool. Although the rate of invention is increasing with AI, adoption is just as slow as it was with digitalization. This shows how important it is to get people on board with the AI transformation and let them (co-)design the AI strategy.
Tim O’Reilly quotes the philosopher Lao Tzu on this subject:
“Fail to honor people, they fail to honor you.”
What’s your opinion on this topic? Here is the link to the good/great read:
Responses