A message to my daughters: Don’t get left behind

By now, you’ve heard from your professors about their AI policies.

Perhaps you’ve also heard that AI is destroying the college experience , or that AI might cause the extinction of the human race .

Or maybe AI will cure all cancers, end global poverty, and deliver superintelligence for everyone .

It’s no wonder college graduates are booing commencement speakers who talk about AI and doomerism has taken over the news: Everything they have heard about it has convinced them that AI is malignant, or at least dangerously unpredictable.

However, to sit this out and let events take their course could be a lapse of judgment you spend a lifetime regretting.

Some of AI’s most outspoken commentators, including Nobel laureates, have also been among the most mistaken.

I run a company that makes autonomous robots, one of the most exciting applications of recent advances in AI, so I have an obvious stake.

This also means I see the tradeoffs at street level.

Robots are not omniscient beings.

They often encounter situations they can’t handle on their own (or they literally run into glass walls ).

On the other hand, they enable humans to do more rewarding work.

Even though robots may eventually displace some jobs, the track record shows that they also create many new jobs .

Those who embrace new technologies are best placed to shape them and reap their benefits.

You are lucky to be living through such a dazzling period of invention.