I recently attended a course on AI. It is mind blowing – and scary – to see what can be done with AI. It is impossible to cover in a few hundred words a topic like this but let me share some thoughts.

Gen AI is reshaping industries and redefining productivity at a speed faster than most people can imagine. The AI Trinity of Microsoft, Nvidia and Meta are worth $10 trillion, 2x India’s market cap. There is no clear payback for these companies from Gen AI yet but there is an all-out race between the tech giants in the US and China to take the lead in what is believed to be a winner-takes-all race. These large companies are each investing close to $100 bn a year to get ahead.

With increased data and computing power, machine intelligence is racing ahead. With over 1.1 Bn weekly active users across the large AI tools, Gen AI has already become very present in our lives. There are those who believe that Artificial General intelligence – when AI would do most routine jobs – is not far and those who talk of the visibility of Superintelligence, when AI will surpass human intelligence in every field.

This technology clearly has incredible power. It also is self-feeding, in the sense that AI can make AI better. Any such powerful force will have the potential for great good but can also have significant risks. What is concerning is the fact that unlike any other time in history, the innovators themselves are deeply worried about the power of what they are working on. Yet, the race for superiority in this space is on.

It is believed this technology will increase productivity, increase concentration of wealth, increase human knowledge and provide a boost to growth, much like the world saw post the Industrial revolution. A host of jobs will disappear and new jobs will be born. Our education systems will need to change what they teach and how they teach. Healthcare will be massively altered with AI. Geo-politics will get re-written and regulations will be needed to keep AI in check. Human life as we know it will look very different in 10-20 years.

I feel human judgment is what might be truly valued in a world obsessed with automation. Machines might not replicate discernment informed by lived experience. Real-world decision-making is rarely tidy and this is where human intuition thrives. AI’s rise will increase the value of critical thinking and sound judgment. The risk lies not in AI itself, but in delegating authority to AI mindlessly, without accountability.

In a world where AI thinks faster, human beings must think deeper. We must guard against cognitive offloading, where we rely on AI blindly. The future probably belongs to those who won’t just use this technology passively but who bring human wisdom and cognition to it, those who use it as a tool and not a crutch.