I think there are countless amazing opportunities for artificial intelligence and its impact on society. I think one of the areas I’m truly the most excited about is education.
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In an environment where everybody can pick up everybody’s tools, we’re all weirdly empowered now. And I mean kind of weird in an almost fey sense like, our powers are weird, they make us weird, and they make our our conflicts weird. It’s again that idea that our tools are interacting with our human flaws in really really interesting ways.
Two out of three 8th graders in this country cannot read or do math at grade level. We are not preparing our kids for what the future holds.
I think at a fundamental level I just believe in human agency. And I think that everyone should feel like they can participate and shape the economy, rather than feel like they’re experiencing symptoms of the economy. When the recession happened, there was all this chatter around well, the Fed is going to do this. Or the banks are going to do this. And government is going to do this. And there was no narrative around what people are going to do.
What comes to mind at the thought of tomorrow’s meal is that tomorrow’s meal has to be a key that unlocks the potential of everybody. Young children who are going without food in Africa. Young women who are suffering in different ways because of lack of food, because of lack of opportunity. Tomorrow’s meal has to be that key that unlocks that. Tomorrow’s meal has to be a driver of socioeconomic development. Tomorrow’s meal has to be a peacemaker that unifies us all.
When you think about the Internet is, the Internet is really a giant sharing machine. It’s a machine for making copies, for making derivative works, for making remixes and making mashups. For distributing those around the world instantaneously. And so there’s a very profound tension between what copyright enables legally, and what the Internet enables technically.
The people who experience broader and more pervasive forms of social inequality related to housing, education, language proficiency, occupational opportunity and so forth, are also the ones who are most likely to be under-connected to the Internet.
Where we meet the public matters. A public lecture delivered by a visiting academic in a university lecture theatre is very different to that same lecture being delivered in a genuine public space, be that virtual or actual.
In 2004, after working for more than ten years as a cook, I visited a favela for the first time. I saw in cooking a way to train people, and so I offered a vocational training program in a local institution.
Obviously there’s human rights that have to do with water and air and safety and shelter, but I think education is right there with it because it really is a public good. I have such a hard time with people who say, for example, who don’t have children and say, “Well why should I pay those taxes. I don’t have anybody in the schools. It’s not benefitting me.” And I think how can you possibly say that? Those are the people that are servicing you, whether they’re servicing your roads or your supermarket or your medical offices.