We must shape the AI tools that will in turn shape us

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The author is a LinkedIn co-founder, Inflection AI co-founder, and Greylock partner.This article was inspired by the commencement speech given at Bologna Business School on September 8

AI will reshape the lives of all of us. It will become the primary technology we use to make decisions and navigate the world—the steam engine of the mind; the cognitive GPS; the tool of orientation, discovery, and navigation.

But we have the technology — not the other way around. With it, we have the opportunity to expand and define the future of humanity.

Only a handful of innovations have the potential to shape and scale us in this way. The last two are the Internet and cell phones. Artificial intelligence not only belongs on this list, but it should be at the top because of its potential to expand the way we use the internet, mobile phones, and many other technologies.

What would a world shaped by artificial intelligence look like? To answer this question, let’s go back to the future we once imagined. In the 1950s, we thought flying cars were just emerging. We didn’t have them then, and we don’t have them now (although we’ve taken big steps in that direction). But in that same decade, U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower founded the Advanced Research Projects Agency (Arpa), which developed the technology to create the internet.

We didn’t think we’d get things like the internet or cell phones – but we did. These tools have revolutionized the lives of most humans on the planet. Now, humans are imagining a new future with artificial intelligence.

Given the speed and spread of artificial intelligence, some fear it could bring about a potential apocalypse, while others see it as a new utopia. They are either happy or worried about AI reshaping our world, whether their lens is on gene editing, geopolitics, climate — or any other aspect of life. But we should avoid camping between these two extremes, especially at this stage of technological development.

Let’s go back to the car for a moment.explain car is today’s emerging technology. We can focus on the utopian dream of cars in space. Or we could focus on dystopian traffic jams. However, at this stage, I suggest that we focus on the car itself, both as an innovation and as a tool for changing society.

The answer to our challenges is not to slow down technological development, but to speed it up.technology yes a tool. The sooner we get to grips with it, the better we will be able to solve the problems we encounter and the problems it may create.

Let’s shape a tool, which in turn shapes us—and consider three questions. How can I make it better? How can we increase the beauty of the world?How to make better tools and Increasing beauty for the benefit of fellow human beings?

Examples of humans asking these questions and acting on them can be found in Renaissance Italy, notably in Filippo Brunelleschi’s dome at the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence. The beauty of Brunelleschi’s Dome can be attributed to many factors. It has stunning frescoes on its inner surfaces and masonry vaults. But its beauty, in my opinion, also lies in something long gone: the people who built it and the tools they used to make it.

Brunelleschi spent 16 years building the dome, beginning construction in 1420. His ambition was to build the dome without the reinforcement of wood, which would not have supported a dome of this size anyway. He has to innovate. So Brunelleschi invented the mobile scaffold. He also designed a crane for hoisting bricks, arranged as a double-hull structure in an innovative herringbone pattern. This not only provides stability to the interior bricks, but also maintains the curvature of the dome.

Brunelleschi then worked with a series of professionals to assemble the tools and domes. He collaborated on the calculations with a famous Florentine mathematician. He worked with blacksmiths and carpenters to create cranes, mobile platforms and scaffolding. Hundreds of workers – from bricklayers to coopers – joined him.

Brunelleschi answers all three questions. But there is a fourth question: How does my work transcend me and benefit humanity, now and in the future?

In building the dome, Brunelleschi carried on the traditions of Gothic, Romanesque, and Classical architecture, and influenced the way countless new buildings were constructed. He provided the toolbox for generations of artists and architects and is credited with inventing linear perspective and mobile scaffolding. His tools and techniques are used not only in art and architecture, but in many other fields and applications.

The masters of the Renaissance mostly reshaped the physical realm, and AI now gives us the opportunity to do the same with the spiritual realm. We’ve seen how technology can enhance the way we share ideas or express ourselves, whether it’s by writing papers or books, creating art and poetry, or helping us communicate with each other in ways we may not have tried before.

Brunelleschi tirelessly shaped his tools, and his tools shaped him — and all of us. As we contemplate a future shaped by artificial intelligence, we should remember the famous adage of media theorists John Culkin and Marshall McLuhan: “We become what we see. We shape our tools, and then our tools Shape us.” AI is the “moving scaffolding” of our cognition. It will help us build all kinds of cathedrals of the mind—many of which we were unable to build before.