Demolition Man

I think there is a strong post here. The interesting comparison is not that Demolition Man “predicted AI.” It is that the movie imagined what happens when technology, convenience, corporate consolidation, automation, and the desire to eliminate friction all converge.

Are We Entering the Demolition Man Age of AI?

I recently found myself thinking about a movie I hadn't thought seriously about in years: Demolition Man.

Released in 1993, the movie sends Sylvester Stallone's character from the rough-and-tumble world of the 1990s into the year 2032. What he discovers is a society that has been completely transformed. It is clean, efficient, technologically advanced, highly controlled, and almost unrecognizable to someone from the old world. (Wikipedia)

Watching the Age of AI emerge, I am starting to see some interesting similarities.

Not because I think we're headed toward the exact future imagined by Hollywood. We probably won't be eating every meal at Taco Bell, and I still don't understand the three seashells.

But the underlying idea suddenly doesn't seem quite so far-fetched.

Technology Changes More Than Technology

One of the things Demolition Man gets right is that major technological and social change doesn't simply give people better tools. It changes how society functions.

In the movie's future, people communicate differently. They interact differently. Entertainment is different. Commerce is different. Even relationships have changed.

Most importantly, the people living in that world consider all of it completely normal.

That's what interests me about AI.

We're spending a lot of time talking about what AI can do.

Write an email.

Create an image.

Analyze a spreadsheet.

Build software.

Answer a question.

Those are impressive capabilities, but I think we're focusing on the wrong thing.

The bigger question is:

What happens when AI becomes invisible?

When we stop thinking about "using AI" because intelligence has simply become part of the infrastructure around us?

The Interface Is Disappearing

For most of the computer age, humans have had to learn how machines work.

We learned operating systems. Software applications. Search engines. Menus. Commands. Websites. Apps.

AI begins reversing that relationship.

Instead of learning how the computer wants us to communicate, increasingly the computer learns how we communicate.

We talk.

We ask.

We describe what we want.

Eventually, we may simply express an intention and let intelligent systems determine how to accomplish it.

That is a much bigger change than adding another piece of software to your technology stack.

The interface between humans and technology is beginning to disappear.

What Happens to Business?

This is where entrepreneurs should be paying attention.

Think about how many businesses exist today primarily because something is difficult.

Finding information is difficult.

Comparing products is difficult.

Scheduling is difficult.

Research is difficult.

Creating content is difficult.

Writing software is difficult.

Managing information is difficult.

Connecting buyers and sellers is difficult.

AI is systematically attacking friction.

And every time technology removes friction, somebody's business model changes.

Sometimes an industry becomes more efficient.

Sometimes an entirely new industry appears.

And sometimes the old industry disappears.

The Taco Bell Problem

One of the running jokes in Demolition Man is that Taco Bell is the only restaurant left after winning the "franchise wars." (Wikipedia)

It was funny in 1993.

It is a little more thought-provoking today.

AI has enormous potential to concentrate economic power.

If a handful of AI platforms become the primary way people search, shop, communicate, work, learn, and make decisions, those platforms become enormously influential gateways to the economy.

We already watched something similar happen with search engines, social networks, app stores, and online marketplaces.

AI could take that consolidation to another level.

That doesn't necessarily mean one company wins everything.

But it does mean businesses should be thinking seriously about who controls the relationship with their customer.

Convenience Has a Price

The future portrayed in Demolition Man is remarkably convenient.

It is also sterile.

The society has eliminated many problems by eliminating much of the messiness that comes with human beings. Spartan quickly discovers that behaviors considered unhealthy or undesirable have simply been prohibited. (Wikipedia)

That tension may become one of the defining conversations of the AI era.

How much decision-making are we willing to delegate?

How much privacy will we exchange for convenience?

How much human interaction will we automate?

How much choice will we surrender to systems that can make decisions faster than we can?

There won't be one answer.

But businesses are going to have to decide where they stand.

The Opportunity Is in the Transition

Here's the part that excites me.

We aren't living in the world of Demolition Man.

We're living in the transition.

The old systems still exist.

The new systems are being invented.

The rules haven't been written yet.

That creates an extraordinary period of opportunity.

The biggest opportunities of the Age of AI may not come from building another AI tool.

They may come from asking a much bigger question: If intelligence becomes inexpensive, abundant, and embedded everywhere, what should business look like?

That is the conversation I think entrepreneurs should be having.

Not:

"How can I add AI to what I'm already doing?"

But:

"If I were starting from scratch today, knowing what AI is going to make possible, would I build this business the same way?"

Those are two very different questions.

And they lead to very different futures.

Thirty-three years ago, Demolition Man imagined a world that seemed ridiculous.

Today, some of it feels a little less ridiculous.

Maybe the lesson isn't that Hollywood predicted the future.

Maybe it's that transformative technology eventually changes society so completely that the strange becomes normal.

Welcome to the Age of AI.

Shaping the future of business in the age of AI.