In the AI of the Storm
We should all embrace AI instead of fearing it. Here's why.
In June, 2024, I was invited to participate in a panel on Artificial Intelligence in Sydney, Australia. Here is the essence of my remarks.
“There is nothing new under the sun,” according to a timeless observation from the first millennium BCE.1 It’s helpful to keep this in mind today as we grapple with the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI), because even though AI may seem groundbreaking to us now, it is not really new.
Here I make the following three claims:
AI isn’t as novel as it seems to us now.
Fears surrounding AI are greatly overstated.
We should be much more eager to embrace AI.
In short, AI is one more positive step forward in humanity’s ongoing march toward human empowerment.
If you’re not entirely sure what exactly AI is, start with my three-minute introduction to AI for the layperson:
New technologies almost always appear revolutionary when they are first introduced. But it’s hard to judge something objectively when we first encounter it because the “wow” factor blinds us. We know from the past, though, that each breakthrough blends into the background over time. When we talk about revolutionary wireless headphones, we might forget that music itself was once new (and once feared). When we talk about a great book, we might forget that written communication was once new (and feared). Humor was once new. Medicine was once new. The pencil and the pen were once new. Apparently even the wheel and fire were once new. AI, too, will soon cease to amaze. It will join the list of things that we take for granted, things that were “apparently once new.”
Furthermore, what AI produces today — dazzling art from a simple prompt or an expert summary of a complex legal issue or a tack-sharp photo in seemingly impossible lighting — may all seem cutting-edge now, but these will soon seem passé and outdated. To see how, consider the fate of clipart, which once epitomized modernity but now appears tacky and old-fashioned. The same thing will happen with AI-generated content and results. As the technology becomes more widespread, the novelty will wear off, and we will marvel only when AI is used for something new and creative, not, as we do now, every time it is used. This is why AI is not a threat to art any more than clipart was (or, before that, the pencil).
More than anything else, AI is an empowering technology.
Rather, more than anything else, AI is an empowering technology. It democratizes access to tools and capabilities that were previously reserved for a lucky few. Writing was once a privilege limited to those who could afford parchment. The invention of paper helped democratize writing, allowing more people to document their thoughts. Before paper, the alphabet itself — along with the mass literacy that it brought — paved the way for more people to share ideas. After paper, typewriters and then word processors removed another barrier, making it easier to translate ideas into words. All of these advancements brought the world better art by permitting more people to create art.
We see the same pattern in other realms: Audio recording technology gives the poor as well as the rich access to great music. Electricity enables better recording technology, and, separately, gives more people leisure time. Also with electricity, the telegraph democratized long-distance communication, empowering the masses to collaborate and to socialize. Long before electricity, clocks provided a way to standardize time, enabling greater coordination in work, travel, and science. More recently, the steam engine shrank frontiers for huge numbers of people, while shortly thereafter the bicycle did the same for shorter journeys. Eyeglasses let more people see and read. Crutches helped people walk. The plow further helped make leisure time possible.
In this sense, AI is just a continuation of the process, laying the groundwork for even untrained artists to create the art they visualize, for even poor writers to translate their ideas into words, and for even unskilled photographers to capture intriguing scenes. And AI is already letting the deaf hear and the blind see.
More specifically, AI lowers the barriers to creativity and expression. Tasks that once required specialized skills, such as drawing comics or writing eloquent prose, are now accessible to anyone with an AI-powered tool. This democratization has the potential to unleash a new wave of creativity and innovation.
And as AI makes certain aspects of the artistic process more rote and accessible, it allows artists of all levels to focus on more advanced creative pursuits. That is, by automating routine tasks, AI thus frees up time and mental energy for more complex and imaginative work.
AI allows artists of all levels to focus on more advanced creative pursuits.
For this reason, as with previous advancements, this AI-enabled shift will inevitably lead to new artistic heights, as creators leverage AI to explore uncharted territories and push the boundaries of their disciplines. After all, the history of art is replete with examples of technological advancements that enabled new forms of expression — from color-pigment technology to improved brushes, from metallurgy to casting techniques, from the invention of the printing press to the development of digital media. AI is the latest tool in this lineage, enhancing the landscape of human creativity.
And by enabling more and more individuals to express themselves, AI aligns with fundamental human values such as dignity, empowerment, and equality. Similarly, as more people gain the ability to create and share their ideas, society itself benefits from a richer tapestry of perspectives and innovations.
Of course there are, as with any new technology, reasons to be cautious with AI. Ancient metallurgy techniques brought both artistic jewelry and lethal weaponry.2 The printing press helped spread the ideas of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., but also those of Adolf Hitler and Stalin. Alfred Nobel’s dynamite made construction safer but warfare more dangerous.
So too, AI has potential dangers, from facilitating the spread of malicious ideas to hindering the recognition of the truth. And AI presents some technical challenges to privacy. But these are not new. And to reject AI, or even to fear it, simply because it embodies the proverbial double-edged sword makes no sense, no more than longing for a return to the days before fire and the wheel.
Rather, it is a privilege — practically a moral imperative — to embrace this latest stage in the ongoing project of advancing human dignity, empowering human creativity, and democratizing access to humankind’s collective accomplishments.
There is, after all, nothing new under the sun — but AI lets more people than ever before benefit from what has always been there.
וְאֵין כָּל חָדָשׁ תַּחַת הַשָּׁמֶשׁ, Ecclesiastes, mid-first millennium BCE.
According to the Book of Enoch (around the 2nd c. BCE), the angel Azazel taught people how to make swords and daggers, shields and breastplates, as well as bracelets, ornaments, makeup, and jewelry. (I have more in Chapter 7 of my The Bible’s Cutting Room Floor.)