AI: Same Machine, Different Drivers

I used to think of technology as something that happened to us, an inevitability we had to adapt to or be left behind. I saw AI as another technological wave that would wash over society, rearranging our professional landscape whether we liked it or not.

But that changed after watching countless F1 races on TV, listening to the commentary about driver skill versus car engineering.

I was watching a particularly tight qualifying session when the commentator remarked, "The car doesn't win races. Drivers do." The camera panned to show mechanics making microscopic adjustments to what already seemed like perfection.

It was during one of those technical breakdowns where they explain the intricate relationship between driver and machine that something clicked for me about AI.

The same F1 car delivers radically different results depending on who's driving it. Max Verstappen and a rookie might pilot identical machines, but the difference in outcomes is staggering. The car doesn't determine the result, the relationship between driver and machine does.

I thought back to my college days at DeAnza in 2002, walking the same paths Steve Jobs once traveled when he introduced the original Mac. I remembered a conversation with my computer science professor about AI, sparked by our shared fascination with The Terminator.

"AI will always be an artifact of human beings," he told me, "just like the hammer. It's a tool that humans created and will always rely on a human to use."

Twenty years later, his words resonate more than ever. For every terrible AI generation you've seen, there's an impressive one created by someone who knew how to "drive" the technology effectively.

The fear in the AI conversation stems from a misunderstanding. We worry about being replaced when we should be focusing on becoming better drivers. The technology isn't going away, but its impact will be shaped by those who learn to harness it skillfully.

I've gone from seeing AI as something that happens to us to understanding it as something that happens through us. The difference isn't semantic, it's transformational.

Just like in Formula 1, the most advanced machinery in the world still needs a human hand to guide it toward victory. The future won't belong to the algorithms, but to those who learn to drive them with purpose and precision.

And that realization changed everything about how I approach this technology, not with fear of displacement, but with the eagerness of someone ready to get behind the wheel.

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