AI Isn't a Capability, It's Access

The AI hype of today looks nothing like it did five years ago.

Back then AI lived in the corporate world. Netflix used it for predictive algorithms. IBM Watson designed perfumes (but can’t smell anything). Lexus used it to write a car commercial. It was a closed system, owned by organisations with the means to build with it. What they built was invisible and boring. Sorting your inbox, monitoring your accounts, pushing viral reels. AI was something that operated on us.

Then chatbots arrived.

The tech didn’t become brilliant, nor did it become smarter. We were given access.

I’d felt this once before, at uni, when I got access to the internet. A whole stack of knowledge that sat behind academics, institutions and library desks was suddenly available. Anything I wanted to know about the world, I could go down that rabbit hole.

What’s happening with AI carries the same spirit, with a slight twist.

The internet democratised information. AI democratises execution.