The Big Disrupter: How AI Represents a Turning Point for Humanity

Human ingenuity is incredible. From the creation of complex machines to forms of creative expression and everything in-between – we are responsible for a vast network of global innovation that can assist and enhance the human experience. But I believe our most significant breakthough occurred in the last decade. Machine learning and the AI it gave birth to represents a shift that will dwarf any innovations that preceded it in terms of scale and long-term, societal impact. Yes, AI is The Big Disrupter. And I believe AI represents a turning point for humanity that will fundamentally alter the fabric of society more than anything we have seen before.

Swiss Army Knives

While some inventions have a limited impact, others have far-reaching effects. Whereas a can-opener allows you to store and eat food, innovations such as broadcast television bring more diverse and complex benefits to our lives. 

TV has provided entertainment, education, enhanced social cohesion, and delivered important news to the masses in an instant and accessible way. I think of these types of innovations as ‘Swiss Army Knives’ in the sense that their impact is broader than their obvious function. Sure, on the surface TV is just a way to watch soap operas, news & documentaries, but its real power is obscured by what it appears to offer on face value. 

The true power of TV is that it can enable people to grow their knowledge and understanding of the world through a medium that can be accessed by children, adults and the elderly. It pours content into our minds through an intuitive interface in an enjoyable way. It feeds our brains with stories, information and experiences. As a result, it helps us interact more effectively with the real world, expands knowledge and can help us to develop skills. Many people moan about TV, framing it as a ‘low-brow medium’, but – if we ignore human embarrassments such as Love Island - it’s a seriously underrated method of knowledge acquisition.

The Long March of Innovation

Over the centuries we have developed multiple inventions like TV. Obviously there’s radio which preceded it, the printing press that came before that and things like automobiles, penicillin and . . . the list goes on. All these things have had wide impacts on society that are hard to ascertain. But what's clear is that each one affected areas beyond their immediate use-cases, much like the circles that ripple from a stone dropped in a pond. They have moulded and adjusted how we live our lives in ways that are difficult to define. And importantly, each one was developed, discovered or created by humans – they are the product of our best minds and the sum of our combined ingenuity. 

The Great Wave

The 2020’s are a significant turning point in our history. I think this is a decade that will be looked upon with both wonder and sadness, as a time when life forked-off in an exciting but radically different direction. Up to this point, everything we have invented as a species - every neat tool, marvellous machine and medical innovation - was created by people. Biological ‘wet brains’ were the only masterminds behind these leaps forward, and they all stand as a testament to our abilities and diversity as a species. 

But, when measured by its potential for global and societal impact, the most groundbreaking invention we have come up with is undoubtedly AI. There will be people reading this who I’m sure will disagree. They will cite electricity, nuclear power, and space exploration as being similarly significant milestones. These are all impactful things, but I’m sorry – none of them come close to the potential of AI. Although they have made notable ‘ripples in the pond’ of life, they pale in significance to the crashing impact that artificial intelligence will have. AI won't create ripples – it will create waves. And not the sort of waves that soothe us peacefully as they gently lap against a sun-kissed beach. No, what we are looking at are tsunami-sized waves of change and disruption that will violently reshape the cliffs and landscapes of our lives.

Superseded by the Supercycle

The reality is that we’ve developed something that can mimic many of the ways that we think. Of course, thinking is the root of innovation, and so the development of AI means that what we have generated is able to not only think for us but also to innovate for us. This is happening right now, and it has been for a while. Most scientific and medical research projects in 2025 incorporate AI into their methodology – processing, analysing and interpreting large swathes of data. But also (and this is important) AI is used to assist humans in drawing conclusions. And these conclusions lead to breakthroughs or new technologies that would have taken far longer to reach or, in some cases, may not have been reached at all. 

But more than this, AI is involved in training and developing the next generations of AI, and when you realise this simple fact, it becomes clear that we have entered an Innovation Supercycle. 

What does this mean? Well, it means that innovation is compounding exponentially – AI improves AI, which in turn improves AI. And with each new AI model or breakthrough in the way synthetic neural networks do what they do, the ability for AI to speed up innovation increases. This creates a continuous feedback loop of progression that supercharges the rate at which new technologies can be invented, tested and brought to market. 

It also – and this is the reason I think the 2020’s will be talked about for centuries to come – means that from this point on, important innovations will not only be as a result of us. A lot of the progress we make in the future will be down to AI.

The AI Airstrike

The way I tend to view what’s happening is this. Imagine AI as a fleet of bombers flying in formation over the landscape of life. As they loom overhead, they are carpet-bombing the ground below, levelling areas of industry, society and ‘the way things were done’ in their wake. And it’s a fairly indiscriminate process – while AI might target certain areas (the generation of written content, images, video, medical research etc.) the bombs they drop will cause collateral damage across a broad range of areas in life and work.  

In my eyes, dramatic metaphors such as this help to crystallise the profound impact that AI is likely to have. But while comparing the effect of AI to an airstrike intentionally creates images of devastation in the mind, my intention is not to alarm you. Instead, I use this example to underline the unprecedented scale and far-reaching consequences that this kind of technology can lead to. And make no mistake - the changes we are already starting to see suggest significant upheaval and disruption lies ahead.

But remember – as AI levels the ground, opportunities will arise. You only need look at history and life-cycles to see parallels that tell us 'resets' enable progression. The Great Fire of London allowed the UK’s capital to become the incredible city it is today. Forest Fires enable new life to grow. The tectonic shifts in Earth’s early history spilled lava that formed the land we now live on. So, while the disruption and reforming of landscapes is usually unwelcome, the results can be an improvement on what went before.

The Spread 

So AI isn’t just a disrupter to workflows, and it isn’t only streamlining processes and production. AI is a disrupter to life as we know it – resetting our established ways of working, and forcing us to reflect on society as a whole. 

The natural and understandable reaction of many to this is predictable. Stop it. Unfortunately, that’s simply not possible. Humanity is hard-wired for progress at all costs, and so once a discovery is made, the combined incentive of society means that we will push forward and develop it further regardless of the consequences. Or – in the case of AI – we will nurture it to push itself further. Even if (or when) governments try to slam on the brakes through regulatory efforts, it will be too late. It’s already too late – much of AI is open source, spread across the globe and being developed independently by many different countries and organisations. 

In my Big Picture talk, I compare AI to a virus due to its potential to spread rapidly and disrupt, but this analogy also holds true in its ability to progress itself. Currently, we are (and may always be) at the helm but as AI is playing at least some role in its own evolution, it already has a degree of agency. Although AI's growth is driven by humans right now, viewing it as a virus helps us visualise its relentless spread and adaptability, highlighting both its risks and its inevitability.

So, while it's an uncomfortable analogy, it does work well. AI can be suppressed but not eradicated. We can develop contingency measures to mitigate some of its impacts, but it will persist regardless. Basically, as was the way with Covid - we just have to learn to live with it.

Hope

Despite the rapid spread and disruptive impact of AI, I genuinely think that we can look upon its existence with positivity. I have occasionally thought that if I could go back in time, it might be good to tweak things so that AI wasn’t developed. Why? Because I think the explosive rate of change it will lead to is going to be a rollercoaster ride in the coming years. It will upend the job market, remove some of the things we love about day-to-day life, and make everything very uncertain.  But while the speed of disruption is daunting, I have come to realise that AI’s benefits can outweigh its negative impacts, provided we use it in the right way - getting the most out of it to amplify what we do. 

I believe that AI will enable us to create things we never thought possible. It will help us to cure diseases, remove discomforts and may even assist us in running things better. It might reduce inequality, delete hardship and enable us to experience things we can't even imagine right now. It will undoubtedly create opportunities for those sharp enough to spot openings, and could eventually create a world where nobody needs to work in mundane, repetitive jobs. It has the power to bring comfort to the elderly, manage our lives more efficiently and in some weird, contradictory way, it might even bring everybody closer together. 

Stay Informed

I think that the best approach for anyone wanting to protect what they love doing is to stay informed about the changes that are occurring. You don’t need to obsess about it like me – I have a particular interest in this area and enjoy reading, analysing and discussing the various components of AI and its related technologies. All you need to do is to keep abreast of the key developments and have a broad understanding of what’s going on – observe the big picture of where we’re heading. Incorporate AI into what you do (as and when it’s appropriate) watch what’s happening in your particular area of work and life, and look to the future to see how changes now may impact things 5, 10 or 15 years down the line.

So – Stay informed, use AI to benefit you and be positive about the future. I am convinced that alongside all the mayhem will come amazing, jaw-dropping benefits that up until now we couldn’t have dreamed would be possible. Don’t lament the changes we are seeing – instead celebrate the wonders that AI might bring us and be one of the architects of the world it creates. 

What excites or worries you most about the future that AI might give us? Share your thoughts, and let's discuss it in the comments below . . .