Trying to separate information technology from the way it is used by people is like trying to separate a breath from the lungs that took it. We are inextricably bound to technology, and it shapes us as much as we shape it. This idea that humans and machines together constitute a larger sociotechnical system is foundational to our understanding of the modern world [1]. The sociotechnical lessons that the past hold for emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) should come as no surprise [2]. Amongst these old lessons is the maxim that the application of technology should be shaped by the problem at hand, and not the technology [3].

At the inaugural Applied AI conference, hosted by BootstrapLabs, a venture builder company with a global outlook based in the Bay Area, the discussion centered on the disruptive power of artificial intelligence and the impact it will have in the world. BootstrapLab believes that artificial intelligence will accelerate the pace of innovation in most industry verticals across the world.

The implications of this AI revolution are enormous. Isaac Newton thought that everything could be computed, but reality does not work like that all the time. As German physicist Heisenberg posited with his Uncertainty Principle, there is a lot of indeterminacy in the world. There are many things we don't fully understand yet. We don't really understand intelligence on a deep level.