The first time I ever encountered AI was in my childhood, when I was an avid RPG player. Back then, it mostly took the form of macro programs—basically rule-based artificial intelligence. In Diablo II, for instance, these macros would endlessly create new games, hunt down specific bosses for unique items, and follow scripted rules based on my character’s health, which items to pick up, and which monsters to engage. Once I saw how well a single macro could perform, I went all-in and booted up eight different virtual machines on my first-generation MacBook. (Yes, eight was the absolute limit before the poor thing almost caught fire.) But it paid off: my characters were always loaded with the best gear, and I ended up with whole inventories of poison charms—Diablo II’s unofficial currency at the time, which worked a lot like Jordan Ring economics.
When I first heard about generative AI—especially around 2021, when ChatGPT was suddenly everywhere—I felt a mixture of excitement and fear. The idea itself wasn’t new to me: I’d already built a handful of rule-based chatbots as a software engineer. And the notion that “AI works for me” also wasn’t particularly groundbreaking. I’d already seen macros mimic my actions in Diablo II. In that sense, I’d been there and done that. But the real-world impact of generative AI felt so much bigger, like a superpower that could produce actual prosperity instead of just in-game loot. Now, instead of “best-of-the-best” virtual swords, I found myself dreaming about Ferraris, private jets, and mansions—like a fantasy that might suddenly become real.
Still, after reading a couple of books on the subject—AI Superpowers by Kai-Fu Lee and Superintelligence by Nick Bostrom—I realized there’s a fundamental difference between rule-based AI and machine learning. I might have been good at the former, but not so much at the latter. As a once-lazy college student who barely squeaked by in linear algebra and AI courses, I knew I was behind on the deep mechanics that power things like ChatGPT. The bright spot, as Kai-Fu Lee points out, is that this coming wave of AI will be all about applying generative models rather than inventing brand-new ones. I fully agree: if you look at the early internet boom (around 2000) or the smartphone revolution (around 2008), the biggest winners weren’t usually the people who built the raw technologies, but those who applied them cleverly. Jeff Bezos never needed to master every protocol behind the internet to build Amazon; the same goes for Travis Kalanick and Brian Chesky with Uber and Airbnb.
Reading The Coming Wave by Mustafa Suleyman reminded me how each groundbreaking technology—fire, the wheel, cars, the internet—revolutionized human life, often faster than we expected. At this point, living with AI every day seems inevitable in the next five to ten years. Since ChatGPT launched, I’ve made it a habit to run any important email through it before sending. I can’t even picture going back to life without it, and friends of mine—a dentist, a consultant, an engineer, a banker, a product manager—all say the same. According to Suleyman, major technologies tend to cluster: one invention sparks another, and that’s how history marches forward. The steam engine triggered the Industrial Revolution; the iPhone paved the way for Uber and Airbnb. It’s easy to see AI fueling a similar chain reaction now.
I have zero doubt that AI will reshape our daily lives—economics, politics, biotechnology, media, art—you name it. I suspect this wave is bigger than any we’ve faced before. In the near future, maybe AI will help us cure previously fatal diseases, ensure no one starves, and make cars so safe they practically never crash. Dangerous jobs might become fully automated by robots; education might be free for anyone who wants to learn; and maybe we’ll even see less nonsense in courtrooms or politics. I can’t predict exactly which breakthroughs will arrive first, or how soon, but one thing is obvious: I need to keep learning and adapting, because this AI wave is already rolling in.
In many ways, this isn’t just another technological shift—it’s something more like a human evolution. Those who adapt to it will thrive; those who don’t, won’t. Looking back, my old macros in Diablo II were basically a small rehearsal. This time, though, the stakes are real life, and the possibilities dwarf anything we had in those games. We’re no longer just farming for digital loot. We’re shaping the future of everything.