🚀 "AI is dangerous"? -- People used to say "the internet is dangerous" too, didn't they?

⏳ History repeats itself -- From the internet to AI, the future I see

Hello, this is Roel.

I recently wrote an article about how to fight in the future using AI, but lately I've been thinking, "History really does repeat itself."

It's no wonder great people have always insisted that we "learn from history." Today, I'd like to look back on the changes of the internet era that I experienced firsthand, and compare them with the AI era that is currently arriving.

🌐 I remember the eve of the internet

I'm in my 40s, so I know a time when there was no internet.

That's exactly why I remember that change so vividly.

Back then, everyone was saying, "There's no way I'd ever shop online," or "It's too dangerous to enter your credit card number."

However, a few years later, those voices had almost disappeared. In fact, people who didn't shop online became the minority.

Innovators start using it, technology advances, and systems are put in place. Then, even those who initially denied it are pushed by the external environment and forced to use it.

This is a constant in human society that has been repeated since the Industrial Revolution.

📰 Existing powers will always resist

I was involved in the early days of internet advertising.

What I saw there were many instances of human-like resistance.

As internet advertising grew rapidly, people who didn't like it appeared. There were also moves by media companies with existing ad slots and some stakeholders to have articles written in magazines and newspapers that stoked anxiety by calling it "dangerous" or "suspicious." In short, forces that try to "return the world to a state favorable to themselves" will always emerge. *I also caught glimpses of the darkness of ugly organizations that were bundles of vested interests that I can't write about here.

Ultimately, what moves the world is not the technology itself, but "human emotions" and "conflicting interests." When you look at public statements and reports with that in mind, the structure becomes very easy to understand.

🤖 The current AI situation follows the same pattern

And now, the exact same thing is happening around AI.

"It's dangerous to give important information to AI," "If you rely on it too much, humans will become useless," "Jobs will be stolen."

Certainly, there is some truth to all of these. But just like the internet of the past, the world will eventually change into one where "you can't function without using it." If those around you start using AI, those who don't will be left behind.

The external environment will no longer allow for that.

⚡ However, AI has a decisive difference

I have been saying that "history repeats itself" up to this point, but there are several ways in which AI differs from the internet.

1. The speed of expansion is on a different scale
   The internet took over 10 years to develop infrastructure and devices. AI is spreading all at once on existing cloud and smartphone platforms, and it is possible that "universal adoption" will progress in just a few years.

2. Adoption costs are almost zero
   Compared to the internet, which required purchasing PCs and signing up for service lines, there are many AI services that can be accessed for free, making the barrier to entry extremely low.

3. It connects directly to human "thinking"
   What the internet changed was information distribution and transactions. Because AI replaces thinking, creation, and judgment itself, it penetrates more deeply into human work and learning.

4. The speed at which social systems cannot keep up
   Legal development was also playing catch-up in the internet era, but AI is moving even faster, making it impossible for rule-making to keep pace. The confusion is significant, but there is also a possibility that a new order will emerge quickly.

As I wrote below, it will continue to evolve for a while without clear rules being set, so I think we have no choice but to predict how it will land based on past experience and act accordingly.

🎯 Summary -- History repeats itself, but AI is faster and deeper

The internet was also called "dangerous" at first, and eventually, it reached a situation where everyone had to use it. AI will likely follow the same path.

However, this time, it will be a change that is faster, deeper, and penetrates the core of humanity than the internet.

That is precisely why we need to consciously update ourselves rather than just waiting passively.

History repeats itself -- but this time, the speed is on a different scale.

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