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Why AI Needs Your Imagination

Here are ten uses of artificial intelligence in the future.

  1. Consciousness Simulation
    “We will have entities that are as complex as humans and, in many respects, more intelligent.” - Ray Kurzweil, on the future of AI and conscious machines.
  2. Universal Disease Prediction “Health and medicine are evolving into an information technology, making health data-driven and predictable.” - Peter Diamandis, on AI’s potential to revolutionise healthcare.
  3. Global Economic Optimisation “AI has the potential to completely rethink how we distribute resources, focusing on optimisation and sustainability.” - Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum.
  4. Personalised Virtual Realities “We will increasingly become immersed in our own personal virtual worlds, shaping our identities, preferences, and interactions.” - Jaron Lanier, virtual reality pioneer.
  5. Real-Time Emotion Augmentation “Brain-machine interfaces will enable us to manage and enhance our cognitive and emotional experiences in real-time.” - Elon Musk, discussing Neuralink’s potential.
  6. AI-Led Climate Reversal “AI and advanced technologies will be critical to tackling climate change, potentially leading us to solutions we have not yet imagined.” - Bill Gates, on AI’s role in environmental sustainability.
  7. Human-AI Hybrid Societies “By the 2030s, we will be able to send nanobots into our brains to help us directly interface with digital systems.” - Ray Kurzweil, on the convergence of humans and AI.
  8. Infinite Energy Discovery “AI can aid in discovering new, clean, abundant energy sources that will solve the energy crisis for good.” - Michio Kaku, theoretical physicist.
  9. Cross-Species Communication “Once AI understands and translates non-human intelligence, we will discover an entire spectrum of communication with animals.” - David Pearce, transhumanist philosopher.

  10. Human Lifespan Extension “I believe we’ll reach a point where we can extend human life indefinitely through the perfect merging of biology and technology.” - Aubrey de Grey, biogerontologist.

To get there, we need to break some of the paradigms for how we think about technology.

This is why AI Needs Your Imagination

AI is transforming how we live and work, but most people are only scratching the surface of its true potential. Rather than unlocking new possibilities, we're treating AI like an advanced version of existing tools. The real challenge isn't AI itself but our failure to harness it imaginatively.

This is akin to owning a Formula One car and using it for a short trip to the local store. Yes, it serves the purpose, but it's a far cry from the car's true potential. With AI, we've only just begun to explore its vast capabilities.

But this isn't a technology problem. It's a creativity problem. Our process with AI is often the same as it has been with all previous technology.
Input, process, output.
Ask it to find something.
Ask it to summarise.
Ask it to organise.

It's functional, but it's unimaginative. It's like using a smartphone only for calls when it can run your entire business from the palm of your hand.

When mobile phones first came out, who could have predicted we'd use them to stream music, monitor our health, or control our smart homes?

The same goes for AI - no one can predict the extent of its impact in just a few short years. But right now, old frameworks limit our thinking and hold us back.

Therefore, the real test lies in breaking free from these traditional constructs. We're treating AI as a more advanced version of Google. But AI is more than a tool for answering questions - it's a gateway to exploring the uncharted and solving problems we haven't yet defined.

But this brings up an important issue: rules. Technology evolves, but often, the rules we've built around it do not. Take Napster, for example. It disrupted the entire music industry by breaking the rules. Artists were furious. Record companies filed lawsuits, and it seemed like a disaster.

But without that rule-breaking, we wouldn't have today's streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music. We can only usher in a new era with new rules if we actively discard some old ones.

Therefore, with AI, we might need to tear up old rules. We can't be so focused on guarding old ways that we miss out on what is dramatic improvements. Even with the rules, we need to find our creativity.

Yet, as with any new technology, there's resistance. But we've seen this before. In the early 19th century, the Luddites - a group of textile workers - smashed the machines they feared would take their jobs.

They saw the machines as a threat to their way of life. But here's the irony: while machines did replace some jobs, they also created countless others. New industries were born, and so were new roles that didn't exist before the textile machines.

It's the same with AI. Therefore, we must stop fearing it as a job destroyer and start seeing it as a job creator. Five years ago, there were no "drone operators" or "social media managers," yet these jobs now flourish. AI will likely create work that we can't even imagine yet.

But to unlock those opportunities, we must shift our thinking about creativity. It's not about preserving the status quo but blowing past the boundaries of what we think is possible.

Creativity, by its nature, involves breaking rules and norms. And that's what AI will force us to do if we use it right.

I often do a creativity exercise with leadership teams, asking them to list as many uses as possible for a paperclip. Most people start with five or six - obvious things - with the best people doing 10 or 12 or maybe 20.

But when I push them, they start to get creative. Could a paperclip be used as art? Jewellery? A makeshift tool? Part of a medical device in an emergency? At a certain point, they realise that the possibilities are endless.

The shifts we need to make in our thinking about AI are in this same realm of creativity. The limits aren't in the technology - they're in our imagination.

Therefore, the real barrier to fully utilising AI is our inability to think creatively about what it can do. Like the paperclip, AI has thousands of potential uses that will only emerge in the next years as we creatively shift what we believe is possible.

It could revolutionise healthcare, transform transportation, or even redefine entertainment. Just as Napster paved the way for today's streaming giants, AI will lead to innovations we can't yet foresee.

But here's the truth: AI isn't a problem we must solve. It's a canvas we need to paint on. And to create something genuinely new, we need to stop seeing AI as a tool for today and start imagining it as the engine of possibilities for tomorrow.

We will shape AI's future by breaking boundaries, not by its technical limits. Our imagination is the only thing standing in the way.

So, let your next interaction with AI be an exercise in creativity, not mere functionality.