Artificial intelligence (AI) is an amazingly powerful capability that is transforming our world faster than most people realize. It has been called by credible experts the most important invention since fire or electricity. Humans have invented a lot of stuff over the millennia but never have we created something that is as intelligent as, or more intelligent than, we are. AI is
profoundly influencing our world right now and its impact will only increase.

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I think about AI in three categories:

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1. AI’s impact on the world. Will AI overthrow the human race? Will it destroy most jobs?Will its hunger for energy decimate our climate? Will AI radically increase wealth inequality and amplify existing biases? For now, it seems that the answer to all these questions is a definite Maybe. I am in turn fascinated, excited, and concerned about AI’s potential effect on the human race and the world. However, I really can’t do much about any of these issues.

2. AI’s impact on business and organizations. I’m a venture partner at two VC funds that focus on AI companies. This type of AI involves machine learning and big data and is built into products, services, and business processes. As an investor I’m fascinated by ways that AI can make existing businesses better, but even more by how AI enables entirely new products and services to come to market. Of course, there are plenty of potential downsides as well.

3. AI’s usefulness for individuals. I’m speaking here about generative AI and chatbots. As hundreds of millions of people have discovered. Gen AI offers stunning new ways to live, work, and relate. Besides using Gen AI regularly myself, I’m working on a national initiative to increase its adoption by mission-driven organizations. I also speak regularly on AI to business, healthcare, nonprofit, and philanthropic audiences. Gen AI presents risks and problems as well as opportunities but the potential to improve your life is so profound that I encourage everyone to use it regularly in ways that work for you – whether you’re a techno-enthusiast, a doomer, or not sure where you fall.

 

AI content on this site will focus largely on categories two and three, where I have the most experience. I’ll share my activities and links to some of the best particles and other resources I come across. For now, keep in mind:

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• Gen AI has been adopted more rapidly than any other technology in history and is improving at a faster rate. Anything that is true about the technology today may not be true tomorrow, and it’s only getting better and more powerful.

• You might be replaced by AI, but you’re more likely replaced by someone who knows how to use AI better than you do.

• People have various reasons not to use AI but underlying most of them is an emotional reluctance to try a new technology. Interrogate your own resistance and ask: Are you (and the world) really better off if you ignore this powerful opportunity to do more of what you do best?

• Many people use Gen AI largely for search, writing and editing, and summarizing meetings. It can do so much more than that. I encourage people to ask AI what to do about the single biggest problem they’re facing. The results often are miraculous.

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Here are some AI information resources I’ve found valuable:

Articles
“15 times to Use AI, and 5 Not To” by Ethan Mollick, One Useful Thing
“A.I. Is Changing How Silicon Valley Builds Start-Ups” by Erin Griffith, New York Times
“How People Are Really Using Gen AI in 2025” by Marc Zao-Sanders, Harvard Business Review

“Behind the Curtain: Your AI survival kit” by Jim VanderHei and Mike Allen, Axios

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Podcasts
Hard Fork, a weekly New York Times podcast on all things tech, especially AI.
JAMA + AI Conversations, interviews from the Journal of the American Medical Association’s publication JAMA + AI.

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Newsletters
Axios AI+, a daily concise roundup of AI news.