AI is the best thing to have ever been invented. It will also take over the world and destroy everyone’s lives. So which is it? Why not both?

AI is a tool. Like any tool, its usefulness depends on how it’s used. Take a hammer for example. You can use it to build something. Or take it and smash stuff. Take it to hammer in that nail or poke holes in your wall. It’s a tenderizer, a wall ornament, even a doorstop! Some people will use it for its intended purpose, others will make do with it. Some will use it to better their lives, others may use it to destroy someone else’s life. Sound familiar?

Whether you hate it or love it, AI is here to stay. That is a fact. It’s not about stopping it, it’s learning how to navigate and adapt to it. For those who were around when the internet just popped up, it’s a very similar experience. It will be the wild wild west of AI for the first several years as people try to figure out how to use AI. Rules and regulations are slow to adapt and a lot of rules will be broken until the people in charge figure it out. Until then, use it to the best of your advantage and try not to hurt anyone. Which is already better than what most corporations are doing at the moment.

Yes, AI will upend the job market. Similar to cars removing horse-drawn carriages. Or the advances of computers. Imagine growing up pre-internet, barely understanding what a computer is, and someone tells you that by the time you’re an adult, everyone on the planet will own a phone. A phone that they actually don’t use to make calls most of the time. A phone to watch tv on, or play video games, or do shopping with! A device that allows access to all the information possible in the world and to connect with people around the world, but somehow make us all more disconnected from one another, and even from reality.

That’s what it feels like with AI right now. We can’t even imagine what AI will look like in even just 5 years, given how fast everything is developing. I’m personally along for the ride. I’m that kid that grew up in a time when Wikipedia was an encyclopedia that you had to go to the library to use. I grew up in a time of the fastest technological advances of any generation. The internet did not exist for me. I saw how it changed the world. I see AI as the next huge advancement in my lifetime. I will accpet it. It will change the world.