Tech Innovation

What Do Horses And AI Have In Common?

Hint: How we deal with them.

A wild horse who came to meet us on the Isle of Skye. Photo by Shashank Nigam

I did not know horses loved carrots! How did I find out? By trying to feed them one.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its applications are like horses — wild animals who, when tamed, could and will change the course of human history.

Building trust takes time with horses. However, the risk of being kicked (literally) can be minimised to near zero the more we get to know each other.

Building trust in AI will be a similar journey. Apprehensiveness is normal, yet, avoidance is in no way practical or even desirable.

Nobody in their right mind would hug a horse at their first meeting. In much the same way, we should not be embracing AI blindly. We must take single steps at a time towards it, and develop a basic understanding that allows us to take the next step (and no more). The process need not be slow, but it must be measured.

That will be the journey of AI. Just a few years later, we will look back and think — wow, if we hadn’t taken all those steps, we’d still be in a technological cave!