Read this blog and you might take me for grumpy. Cynical. An unhappy man shaking his fist at clouds. I can't blame you — but you'd be wrong. What I do is cut through the veil of distraction. Strip things to the core. See the incentives, the motivations, the hidden intentions. Today's target: AI.
So much has been written and said about it. Ninety-nine percent is distraction. Misinformation. Plain wrong. Everyone talking has something to sell — a product, a service, themselves. It comes down to that. What you actually need to know doesn't even take 499 words.
Remember the world formula? No, not the unifying theory of physics. Economy = labour × capital. It drives how humans live and work together. Economics 101 unlocks how the world works. Quick reminder: humanity has been on a growth path for 250-plus years. Technological progress, innovation, better lives for billions. All of it the result of humans working with knowledge and assets — capital — to leverage each worker's output. That's it. That's why we progress, why stocks go up, why lifestyles improve, why we build robots and will eventually travel to the stars.
There are ways to refine the formula. Bolt on extra factors, mostly to make a point. Distractors! Instead of clarity they muddy the waters. Best example: AI. The pundits introduce it as a brand-new third factor beside labour and capital. Some say it replaces labour — nobody needs to work any more, or nobody can. Others predict a productivity explosion. Be that as it may. Take the formula and add AI. Where does it go? The capital side. Obviously. A technology innovation. New software, new assets, sharper tools for workers. Even Marx agrees with me: labour is the only source of value creation. Capital — machines, software, AI — creates nothing on its own. AI has no will. No wants. No intentions. It always needs humans. Which is why AGI is not a thing: a mind without wants is a tool, not an agent.
Every new technology redefines what we can do. Tasks get automated. Job profiles change. Some jobs vanish — they always have. New jobs emerge. But one thing happens every time: technology raises the productivity of labour. Humans leverage it through the tools we pick up and the way we wield them — and lift the whole species a rung higher. The steam engine did it. Electricity did it. The internet did it. AI is doing it now.
Understand that simple fact and you see the world through untinted glasses. I am far from grumpy. I deflate the extremes on both sides — the perma-bulls selling utopia, the doomers selling fear. Both are selling. Treat AI like any other technological innovation and you see it for what it is: capital. You've lived through technology cycles before. You can do it again. Learn how it works. Embrace it. Find your use cases. Help others aboard. Openness, curiosity, courage. The formula hasn't changed. Neither should you.