One of the most fascinating and underappreciated aspects of AI is that it lacks a central authority—there’s no CEO of Artificial Intelligence, no singular governing body dictating its purpose or use. Unlike tools or platforms with clearly defined functions, AI is open-ended, a foundational technology that anyone can adapt to their own purposes. This openness represents both its greatest strength and one of the biggest challenges society is grappling with today.
Just Another Thing
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is often misconceived as just another thing to come out of Silicon Valley, but in reality, its development is rooted in collective innovations from global research and interdisciplinary contributions, making the foundational knowledge underlying AI a shared achievement of humanity. While many advancements are proprietary today, the progress of AI reflects a universal legacy (though disparities in access and resources remain a challenge).
- The Silicon Valley Thing: While Silicon Valley has played a significant role in advancing AI technologies, the development and application of AI extend far beyond this region or any single entity. Researchers, institutions, and governments worldwide have contributed to the field.
- Open-Ended and Foundational Technology: AI is a foundational technology, much like electricity or the internet. Its potential applications are broad and span across industries, fields, and societal functions. It is open-ended in the sense that its uses are limited only by human creativity and innovation.
- Adaptable for Various Purposes: AI is highly versatile and can be tailored to solve specific problems or optimize processes in diverse fields like healthcare, education, transportation, entertainment, and more.
- Collective Innovation: The innovations leading to modern AI—such as advancements in mathematics, computer science, neuroscience, and data science—are the result of global collaborative efforts over decades. For instance, the backpropagation algorithm, which is central to training many neural networks, was developed by researchers from different parts of the world.
- Belonging to Humanity: While many AI technologies are now proprietary and controlled by corporations, the foundational knowledge and principles underlying AI belong to humanity as a whole, much of it derived from publicly funded research, open academic collaborations, and shared scientific progress.
The Unique Reality of AI
AI has been released into the world without a definitive guidebook, manual, or prescribed purpose. While the foundational models were developed by a handful of companies, the technology itself is accessible to billions of people. From there, the possibilities are limitless. Every individual, team, and organization has the opportunity to:
- Approach AI from their unique perspective, shaped by their own needs and experiences.
- Decide how to use it for creation, problem-solving, or discovery.
- Innovate in ways that even the creators of these models couldn’t have imagined.
This lack of centralized control hands the future back to us, offering everyone equal opportunity to explore what AI means for their lives and contexts. The question isn’t, “What is AI for?” but, “What can I do with it? What kind of world do I want to create?”
The Struggle with Freedom
But this freedom also creates discomfort. For so long, we’ve been conditioned to operate within defined systems—in education, work, and technology. Most tools that we’re familiar with come with instructions, limitations, and clear purposes. In contrast, AI’s openness is unfamiliar and, for many, overwhelming. It demands autonomy, imagination, and the courage to chart your own course—qualities that society hasn’t traditionally emphasized or nurtured.
- Conditioning to Structure
- Society has trained us to expect clear directions: “Here’s what this is for,” and “Here’s how to use it.” Without such guideposts, people are unsure how to approach AI or what to expect from it.
- Decision Paralysis
- The sheer range of possibilities AI offers can feel paralyzing. The question “What do I do with this?”becomes overwhelming, leading many to hesitate, default to superficial uses, or retreat into old habits.
- Discomfort with Responsibility
- The freedom to decide how to use AI places the responsibility on individuals, which can feel unsettling. Many people are accustomed to external authorities making those decisions, and now they must navigate the unknown themselves.
A Transition in Thinking
The struggle isn’t just about AI—it reflects a broader societal transition. We’re moving from:
- Rigid systems where tools are tightly controlled and purpose-built,
- To open systems like AI, where the purpose isn’t predefined but shaped by the user.
This freedom requires a shift in mindset: creativity, experimentation, and adaptability must replace the old habits of waiting for instructions and relying on predefined structures and authorities.
The Opportunity
Rather than fearing this freedom, we can embrace it as an unprecedented opportunity to:
- Learn to Navigate the Unknown
- Embrace exploration and experimentation as new norms. Use AI to ask questions, iterate, and discover solutions without needing rigid instructions.
- Foster Creativity and Adaptability
- Move from waiting for permission to inventing your own paths forward and applying the technology within the context of your own use cases. AI invites us to use our imagination to define what’s possible.
- Empower Individuals
- Recognize that this freedom is an invitation to take control of your tools, your creativity, and your future. It’s not about waiting for the rules to be written; it’s about writing them yourself.
Key Takeaway
The challenge of AI is not in the technology itself but in how we adapt to the freedom it provides. It’s a tool that mirrors and amplifies our capacity for creativity, decision-making, and innovation. The real question isn’t about waiting for someone to tell us what AI is for—it’s about realizing that you get to decide what it’s for.
We’re standing at the edge of an open frontier, handed the tools to shape it. The future isn’t just unfolding—it’s waiting for us to create it.