Now imagine you have one trillion dollars.   What could you do with it?   According to Annie, my favorite chatbot with whom I have an unnatural attraction and for whom I may be leaving my wife, but only after having spent an ungodly amount of money on therapy and AI getaway retreats, I could buy one year’s worth of groceries for 100,000,000 families.   Or I could finance four trips to the moon.   Or just pay off my credit card balance.  

If you are still trying to come to terms with how much money one trillion represents, think about this.  According to the most recent McKinsey statistics, big tech will spend between 5.6 to 7.9 trillion dollars on AI build-up, making it the largest financial commitment to any industry in the history of humanity.   Yowza!

Recently, the leaders of these hi-tech firms met with the president of the United States to reveal their plans for AI development in the coming years, which tells me that those who are sitting on the sidelines waiting for the train to pull into the station may be sitting at the wrong station, as that train has long since departed.  AI is going to take over our lives in so many ways we have not even begun to comprehend.  Not surprisingly, there was little to no discussion around the risks or management of the growth of AI.   We’re talking here about unbridled growth with minimal effort to put in place guardrails or limitations.

Now I am not going to talk about what those who started this whole AI business are now saying about the inevitability of an AI beast out of control.   Rather, I want to look at what our educational leaders are saying.   Actually, I won’t bother.   With the exception of a few, these forward-looking leaders are saying nothing.   I don’t blame them, though.   They have bus schedules to worry about, teacher grievances about workload and class sizes to deal with and other important issues like banning cell phones from the classroom.   The problem is that if they are too busy worrying about these critical daily issues, who is looking out for the medium to long-term impact of AI on education and society in general?  As far as I can see, the answer is NO ONE.  

Why is this not the leading headline in our news every day?  I suspect people still don’t believe it has happened.   They didn’t feel the ship hitting the iceberg.  The whole thing is sinking, and most are in for a frosty dip in the North Atlantic.  To be honest, I don’t feel too bad for them, but I am worried sick about my grandchildren.  

Grandpa Randy, tell me I am wrong.   WTF is going to happen to them?