No type of change provokes as much anxiety as rapid technological progress. When Emperor Tiberius reigned in Rome, Pliny the Elder reported that a glassmaker came to him with an unbreakable glass. Tiberius, to protect metal workers, destroyed the glassmakers’ workshop.
Today, many view AI much like Tiberius viewed the glassmaker. A constant drumbeat of dystopian headlines warns of job losses, biased algorithms and runaway superintelligence. Unlike Tiberius, we have the chance to embrace progress and its vast positives, not just its risks. AI will bring countless benefits if we let it.
AI will not concentrate wealth; it will distribute it to the masses. Within the next decade, AI could be the greatest equalizer of our lifetime, unlocking access to services and opportunities once reserved for the richest.
One promise of AI lies in its ease of access. Unlike many past technologies that depended on physical proximity, the benefits of AI are inherently scalable. Equipped with only a smartphone and an internet connection, billions across the globe will be able to access world-class resources: healthcare, finance, education, legal and more. This democratization of services has no precedent.
Consider how a child living in Mississippi will have access to the same education that a billionaire’s child on the Upper East Side of Manhattan receives. Prosperity isn’t zero-sum; a rising tide will lift all boats. AI will expand the economic pie, unlocking markets and untapped talent, and facilitating explosive growth.
Much like Tiberius, many are voicing concerns about what this will mean for jobs. The good news is that a recent Brookings report highlights that AI-related employment is growing rapidly, with postings increasing at an annual rate of 28.5% since 2010. Right now, these jobs are concentrated in places like Silicon Valley, but they are also beginning to spread to Rust Belt states. Furthermore, the report projects that AI will enable significant productivity gains for small businesses.
Walk down any street in America, any hospital ward, any school, and it will be obvious there is so much work to do. We need to pick up the highest leverage tools we have available to make the world we all want to live in. AI will free people to focus on work that requires creativity, empathy and strategic vision, and enable them to implement these skills quickly and cost-effectively.
AI brings immense opportunity for human flourishing, but it also presents serious risks. If strong ideological or political biases are deliberately coded into AI systems, these systems could hyper-accelerate partisanship and destabilize the country. President Trump’s recent AI Action Plan directly confronts the challenge of bias in AI. The plan rejects “top-down ideological bias†and advocates for AI models that reflect objective truth. This is the sort of policy the future of AI development needs. AI must seek the good of the many by considering objective truth to realize its positive effects.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.â€
We are at an inflection point in history. The choice before us is whether we develop AI in a way that ensures it’s built on a foundation of truth and access or one of bias and exclusion. The West must embrace the spread of AI as a boon to our economy and as a moral imperative. If we let it, AI will empower billions with tools and services currently accessible only by the wealthiest.
Freedom to pursue life, liberty and happiness is core to our democracy and to progress. Let us not repeat Tiberius’ mistake. AI will not replace humans. It will unleash flourishing.
Jeff Huber is the CEO and cofounder of Chroma. He wrote this for InsideSources.com.
