Ensuring technology remains our tool

The newspaper asked me to write a piece exploring the last 25 years from a technology perspective. Here it is in print (along with the other really interesting contributions).

“Write a 400-word article reflecting on the past 25 years of the 21st century, focusing on information technology,” I typed. Within seconds, ChatGPT presented me with a draft that was surprisingly coherent. But this isn’t it. In what might be delightfully anachronistic, I’ve written this by hand, in pencil, in my notebook.

A now-infamous smartphone advertisement showed a colossal machine crushing objects — a violin, a typewriter, a camera — symbolising the smartphone’s ability to replace countless tools. And it isn’t just the smartphone. The progress in the past quarter-century has been awe-inspiring. Computers have consolidated so much of what we do, distilling entire experiences into digital form. Speed and connectivity have been the defining factors: instant messaging, rapid financial transactions and real-time collaboration are now the norm. I teach remotely, one-on-one with people across the country — they in their work or home offices, me in mine, sometimes at the bus-stop, or from the side of a mountain. And with recent advances in generative AI, we can have a research idea, scope it up and try it out — all during the meeting. While this is undeniably convenient, it also reshapes how we think, work and live.

Underlying these advances are technologies such as AI, smartphones and Web 2.0. These aren’t just tools — they’re paradigms that have made connectivity and efficiency ubiquitous, and democratised access to knowledge.

I grew up messing about in boats, watching the old 12m America’s Cup, tensely waiting for the “first cross”. When foiling boats emerged, I missed that prolonged suspense. Seeing them race in person, though, I realised the strategy hadn’t disappeared — it had just become blisteringly fast. AI is doing the same for work: accelerating processes — the crew aren’t passengers, but the nature of sailing has changed. Just as we wonder what roles these new sailors are doing, we need to ask what the nature of our work is.

In an experiment, four of us — including a computer — completed a semester-long business school team project in just over an hour. We passed. So why are we making students slog through semester-long projects? Might they learn more by doing 34 different projects? Certainly, they’ll learn differently, but they’re going to work differently too.

But this acceleration comes with trade-offs. Today, everything we do is mediated by computing. You might be talking with a person, but they are filling in a form. And because computers are terrible at the pesky human things like emotion, empathy and ambiguity, we reduce ourselves to servants of the machine: “the computer says no”.

The all-crushing smartphone advertisement, while awe-inspiring, also sparked a backlash. Critics called it dehumanising, arguing that collapsing these tools into one device killed creativity, nuance and the tactile, human experiences these objects once offered. Computing’s apparent lack of values does not mean technology is benign; rather that we have come to presume that efficiency, speed and productivity are values that match societal aspirations.

As we enter the next quarter-century, these aren’t just philosophical questions. We need conversations about the nature of work. Let’s rethink what “productive” means. We must insist technology developers go beyond efficiency and turn their attention to the real world of ambiguity, wicked problems and uncertain outcomes. We need to foster creativity, empathy and human connection to ensure that progress aligns with societal wellbeing. We need to invest in digital literacy and prioritise inclusivity, accountability and sustainability to ensure technology serves humanity, not the other way around.