The Third Runway

Rachel Reeves may want it but, just like the metaverse, it's unlikely the good people of Harmondsworth are ever going to be troubled by it

Image: Neil Hall / Reuters

Last week the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, announced that the Government are supporting a third runway at Heathrow and invited proposals by the summer. Which means that we’re all talking about it. Whether it ever happens however, is an entirely different matter.

However, did you know that the original Heathrow airport included six runways? So adding a third now would seem to be no more than a mere bagatelle. No matter, everyone’s talking about it.

Now, at this point you might be forgiven for thinking that you’ve accidentally stumbled upon some obscure and nerdy plane-spotting blog; and that wouldn’t be a good thing. So you’ll be relieved that you haven’t.

You see, all the noise around a third runway at Heathrow got me thinking….about AI. Because AI and Heathrow’s third runway (let’s call it HTR from now on as my fingers are getting tired) have several things in common.

Plans for both were originally developed in the 1940’s, both will have a significant impact on our lives and both are the subject of much discussion and debate. But here’s where they differ, while we’ll continue to talk about HTR for many years to come, the same cannot be said about AI.

How so? Let me explain.

While at The Lead Summit in New York last year, I listened to a session on AI from IBM (other vendors are available), during the course of which, I learnt possibly the best way of articulating the rapid evolution of AI I’ve ever heard; it went thus: “trying to find a use case for AI is like trying to find a use case for the personal computer”.

“Technology is only new if you can remember it the way it was before” Jason Dorsey

As in, when was the last time you heard someone claim that their innovative, ground-breaking new predictive supply chain solution is powered by……computers? Because that, as we know, would be nonsensical. In just the same way, I predict that AI will, almost imperceptibly, become us, just as the smartphone, tablet or laptop are a part of our lives, to the extent that we no longer consciously think that they are.

We’re already seeing this with AI, from Google searches to taking pictures with aforesaid smartphone to maps and navigation. AI is no longer an add-on, it is intrinsically part of what we do and what we experience.

But don’t take my word for it, I’ll leave that to Jason Dorsey, founder of the centre for generational kinetics, a researcher studying the behaviours of the different generations. He describes the advance of technology and the way generations perceive it in this was: “technology is only new if you can remember it the way it was before”.

And, more than ever, in years to come, just like the fact that anyone born after the year 2000 has never heard an internet dial-up tone, there will be generations to come who will never know what life was like before AI.