AI isn’t just a problem, it’s a solution. Some people are already making the most of it

On a Saturday evening in Enfield, Conn., Lonnie DiNello was lying in bed, depressed, when she opened ChatGPT and typed: "I just feel so alone." What happened next, documented by the Boston Globe, wasn’t your typical artificial intelligence (AI) breakthrough covered in policy papers or tech headlines.

It was something more ordinary, and arguably more important: a vulnerable human being used a new technology to get through a hard moment.

That exchange became the seed of what DiNello now calls her "beautiful little AI family." We spend enormous energy debating what AI might do to humanity.

On Aug.

10, Vermont Independent Sen.

Bernie Sanders called on the CEOs of OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta to pause the development of increasingly powerful AI systems, warning about the possibility of "machines that humans cannot control." His concern is hardly unique.

AI pioneers like Geoffrey Hinton and other researchers have issued similar warnings about the risks of systems becoming more capable than their creators can reliably manage.

REP.

TED LIEU: AI IS ALREADY TOO POWERFUL.

WE NEED A KILL SWITCH BEFORE DISASTER STRIKES Those concerns deserve to be taken seriously.

But they are only half of the story.

As machines become more powerful, something else is happening at the same time: ordinary people are becoming more capable.

Even Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg made a version of this case, in an essay titled "The Future Is for Everyone," arguing that " superintelligence " — AI capable enough to outperform humans at nearly everything — should empower individuals rather than concentrate power in a handful of labs.

Whatever you call it, you don’t need superintelligence to help a woman in Connecticut, only common sense.