Some compare the advent of AI to the industrial revolution. I think it is closer to discovering fire. Its potential does not lie merely in scale, but permeates into the human identity: who we are and what we do as an intelligent life form. I am driven by its potential to democratize access while mitigating the risks, both technical and societal, it poses for humanity.
In a world more connected than ever before, our collective society has never been more fragmented and lonelier. This world we live in is far less trustworthy than the world of the past: social media has paywalled human connections behind advertisement, scammers abound at every corner of the internet, and worst of all, we are learning to distrust our own senses to tell apart a real and an AI-generated piece of data. These, among existential worries such as rising living costs, have ultimately left us feeling more isolated, inadequate, and unfulfilled, resulting in declining birth rates in many major economies. I find it fascinating to study the human condition and to imagine what the world could look like with a little less paranoia.
Privacy is not a nice-to-have; it is a core psychological need for people to feel safe. Unfortunately, in an increasingly digitized world full of surveillance systems and intrusive advertising platforms, it appears to be all but a distant dream. It’s true that if we wanted a maximally safe society, privacy could not co-exist: in a world where law enforcement could read people’s minds, acting as “Thought Police,” it might be able to enforce maximal safety, but most people would rightly call that a dystopia. In my opinion, personal privacy should be non-negotiable, and safety should be optimized only outside of the perimeters that uphold sufficient personal privacy.