Thinking About the Future, Through My Son's Eyes
A reflection on AI, power, and the world we're passing to our children.
My son will turn 5 in a little less than a month from when I'm writing this and I've been finding myself reflecting (or projecting) more and more on what world our generation is going to pass onto him and his peers. It sounds cliché and I am sure that every parent in the history of parenting has likely had the same or similar thoughts, but seeing him grow into a 'kid' makes the future feel so much nearer.
There are those rare individuals who possess the perfect combination of qualities - intelligence, drive, creativity, and emotional wisdom - that allows them to genuinely shape the future. They hold positions of real influence and power, capable of steering the course of events that will affect our children's world. But for most of us, myself firmly included, our sphere of influence is much smaller. We're left to focus on what we can directly affect, to make our impact in more modest but no less meaningful ways.
Watching Trump's day 1 executive order barrage (e.g. reversing AI safety order, withdrawing from WHO, withdrawing from the Paris accords) and inauguration rhetoric (e.g. America first), along with the now out-in-the-open tech oligarchy smugly grinning behind him, has these fears on overdrive. I know there is a lot of noise - but the signals seem to be troubling.
We are entering a new technological age in which intelligence as we have traditionally defined it is going to become commoditized and will be a super power for those with the knowledge and capital to deploy it. I work in AI, I find the topic itself beautiful and engaging from both its mathematical basis and philosophical implications on human nature and consciousness. That said, I am terrified of the future it may usher in.
I've spoken with many folks close to me about these fears which are not singular given all the potential negative possible outcomes. That said, my main, most realistic fear is the exacerbation of wealth concentration that could be enabled through AI. Companies with balance sheets measured in trillions will deploy compute on scales unapproachable to all except nation states. As coherence of deployed intelligence gets better and AI agents take on larger and larger traditionally human tasks, these organizations will deploy 'work-forces' in the millions at the 'flip of a switch'.
The possibility for innovation and the velocity at which it will happen cannot be denied. Applied in altruistic ways could lead to a new golden age for humanity where we point this compute at energy, climate, hunger and health problems. Coming back to Trump's second at-bat however, I'm reminded of how little faith I have in those who wield said balance sheets to pursue any of these noble goals.
Call me pessimistic, and in this moment, I can't deny that - but I expect these companies to follow the profits, and historically profits have not been associated with global altruistic goals.
So what can I control? Well certainly not any of those entities capable of materially affecting our future - but I can focus on how I prepare my son. The lessons and values I can try to impart on him so that hopefully if more like myself do, we can raise a generation stronger than ourselves. It's in this that I find some hope. So, on this day when we're reminded of how powerful greed is, I look to hope.