Faculty at 10: Why it's time to act to embrace AI's change of tense

I was on baby duty last weekend. On my fifth loop of pushing my son around the park, I started to reflect on what’s changed for Faculty over the last ten years.

And I think the biggest thing is actually a really simple thing. A change of tense.

We moved from saying “AI *will be* the most important technology of our time” to “AI *is* the most important technology of our time”. 

That means now is the time to act. We can’t afford to wait any more. 

This was really brought home to me when I visited San Francisco. 

Waymo is the Google self-driving car company. They now have hundreds of self-driving vehicles on the streets. 

You just call a car through their app, wait for it to arrive, get in and arrive at your destination. 

Exactly like an Uber, but with not a single person in sight. 

Now, we’ve been promised self-driving cars for so long. Many people haven’t noticed they are actually here. 

That implies all kinds of positive and negative changes are about to start sweeping over us. Lower road deaths, job losses, changes in how and where we live, etc. 

But, the most important change is that AI is here, and it’s real. And we have to act on that. 

But not everyone realises it yet. 

It might sound silly, but I genuinely think businesses should fly their senior leadership to San Francisco. Have them call up a Waymo themselves. At a very gut level, they will realise the AI era is now, not at some unspecified point in the future. And this is going to represent a really, really big change.

So what should we do? Well, I think there are two things that matter. 

The first is that the West uses this disruptive opportunity to recapture its spirit. All around us, we can see we are in decline. 

Our GDP has barely grown since 2008. Education standards are dropping. Crime is more abundant. Hospitals are creaking. 

And yet, we are still amongst the greatest civilisations ever created. And we certainly aren’t finished yet. 

In every crisis, there is an opportunity.  We have the opportunity to use the coming AI disruption to recapture our spirit, relearn our principles, and be the best version of ourselves again. 

That means embracing AI in our schools, hospitals, police forces, and other public services. 

But that will only be possible with money, and that comes from improving our economy; making our companies more efficient and more capable. We need jobs and growth to kickstart everything else. 

That means we have to act. We can’t just wait for the disruption to overwhelm us. 

The second big thing is that we need to manage this AI transformation safely. 

We are on the path towards the creation of true human level artificial intelligence. This will be a unique moment in human history, maybe a unique moment in the history of the universe.

 It will be fraught with both great opportunity and great danger. We need to be responsible stewards. That will require a careful balance of opportunities and threats, treating both with respect. 

But, again, to steer the best path, we need to act. We cannot be passive. 

Let’s imagine we’re at Faculty’s 20 year anniversary, in ten years time. 

A good question for us is: what would we be proud of?

In ten years, we need a prosperous UK. One that has safely lent into the changes it was facing, and used them to create health, wealth, security and opportunity for its citizens. 

It has cutting edge technology, safely deployed throughout its companies and government departments, making products and services cheaper for citizens and customers. 

It has helped the world safely embrace AI, treading a careful path between opportunity and threat, taking both seriously. 

And ultimately, this is why Faculty does what it does. 

We help companies and governments, particularly in the UK, improve themselves. We help to make AI safer, for everyone all around the world. 

We know, more than most, that “AI is the most important technology of our time”. And it’s only by safely leaning into this transformation that we’re going to make the most of it. 

So if you’re ready to act, we’re ready to help. 

Let’s try to use the next ten years to build something we can be proud of. 

And then, hopefully, we’ll see you at the Faculty twenty year party in 2034. 

Definitely a little older, hopefully a little wiser, and collectively celebrating our success.