AI Revolution
INTELLIGENT LIVING
By Rudransh Rajaram, Dallas Tx
There have been times in history when everything changed – the way we live, communicate, think, etc. From the Agricultural Revolution to the printing press to the Industrial Revolution, innovation has continuously reshaped society and changed what we are capable of. We see the effects of innovation everywhere. Yet we often forget how visionaries built on these breakthroughs to push boundaries further.
Alan Turing achieved the impossible - Could Alan Turing have broken Enigma and laid the foundation for modern computers without the technological advances of his time? Would Jeff Bezos have even tried or been able to create Amazon without the Internet Revolution? The answer is probably not. These pioneers used the progress of their time to further push the bounds of possibility. And with the current AI Revolution, we, as visionaries, must learn to do the same.
Google defines a visionary as “a person with original ideas about what the future will or could be like.” The truth is, we are all visionaries – we all have our own ideas and unique views of the world and where the future lies. But with the AI Revolution, the means through which we can implement our visions have changed drastically. Historically, turning an idea into reality required time, research, and resources; however, today, AI provides a plethora of information and perspectives to bring visions into fruition far more quickly. Across industries today, many firms have begun implementing Generative AI into their systems, allowing employees to leverage its scale and capabilities to enhance their overall efficiency and output. The next step appears to be Agentic AI, a proactive system that can operate independently without any inputs from users – the key is incorporating this into our processes to make our world-enhancing visions a reality.
Despite the multitude of positives that AI provides, we must also be aware of its consequences and risks. AI requires an immense amount of computational power, which comes from data centers. For these data centers to function, they must be cooled to avoid overheating, for which millions of gallons of water are used each year. Data centers consume over 200 terawatt-hours of electricity annually—enough to power 20 million homes. AI’s environmental cost is real, and we must account for it. Beyond such environmental consequences of AI, there are significant ethical issues as well. AI systems learn from the data that they are fed – data that comes from creators of its models and from users like us. Therefore, the creator’s biases and our biases inevitably impact the outputs that AI generates and that we use for any task. Imagine the impact of these biases on a larger scale – in an already polarized world, such biases can reinforce misinformation and potentially even destabilize society. For such risks to be mitigated, we must approach AI with skepticism, pushing back on the information it gives and verifying its sources. In doing so, we will be able to grasp AI’s true value and implement it in a way that benefits society and promotes world peace.
The future consists of two types of people – those who harness AI to become pioneers of a world-enhancing vision and those who resist it and fall behind. We must seek to be a part of the former group, leveraging AI for the benefit of humanity. Learn AI. Question its outputs. Build responsibly. The world is waiting for the visionaries who dare to guide its power for good. AI is a powerful tool, but it doesn’t have intentions on its own. The questions we ask, the data we feed it, and the way we use its outputs shape the insights, solutions, or predictions we get. In other words, AI reflects our choices and focus. Whether AI builds a brighter future or spreads confusion for generations to come depends entirely on how we wield it.