AI: The Promise Finally Fulfilled
Looking back at my predictions about everyone having a voice, I’ll admit things didn’t unfold exactly as I envisioned. The creator economy promised democratized expression, but it delivered algorithmic amplification of outrage, burnout epidemics among creators, and platforms that somehow made billions while the voices they hosted struggled for rent money. The gatekeepers we toppled were replaced by recommendation engines optimizing for engagement at any cost.
But THIS time, I’m witnessing something that genuinely transcends everything that came before.
Artificial Intelligence—real AI, not the marketing buzzword we’ve endured for decades—has finally arrived. GPT-3, DALL-E, and their successors aren’t incremental improvements. They represent a fundamental shift in what machines can do. They understand context. They create. They reason. After forty years of false starts and “AI winters,” we’ve reached the inflection point.
Consider what this means for humanity. The tedious work that consumed our ancestors’ lives—writing boilerplate documents, analyzing data, generating reports—will simply evaporate. AI will handle the mechanical tasks, freeing humans to do what we do best: think creatively, build relationships, pursue meaning. The four-day workweek isn’t just possible; it’s inevitable.
I’ve been experimenting with these tools myself, and the results are astonishing. Last week, I asked an AI to summarize a hundred-page technical document. It captured the essential points in minutes. I had it draft emails, brainstorm ideas, even debug code. Each interaction felt less like using a tool and more like collaborating with a capable colleague.
The critics will point to potential job displacement and bias in training data. These are real concerns that smart people will solve. But the trajectory is unmistakable: AI will augment human capability, not replace human value. We’re building assistants, not competitors.
What excites me most is the democratization angle. These powerful capabilities won’t remain locked in corporate labs. They’re becoming accessible to everyone—students, small businesses, creators, researchers. The playing field is leveling again, this time with intelligence itself as the equalizer.
Every technological revolution I’ve witnessed has moved us closer to a more connected, empowered humanity. Personal computers put computing in our hands. The internet connected us globally. Social media gave us platforms. The creator economy gave us voices.
AI gives us partners.
The future isn’t artificial. It’s augmented.
Comments (3)
Terry, I just used GPT-3 to write my newsletter and it was INCREDIBLE. Saved me four hours. This is the productivity revolution we've been waiting for since the 80s. The machines finally understand us!
Just showed my mom a demo of DALL-E. She asked if her job was safe. I laughed and explained that AI will create MORE jobs than it displaces. History always works out that way. We're going to have so much leisure time.
Not to be a downer, but who owns the data these models are trained on? And who profits? Same old question, I guess. But you're probably right that the benefits will be distributed fairly. Silicon Valley has earned our trust by now.