There’s a lot being said right now about artificial intelligence. Some of it’s hopeful. Much of it’s reactive. You don’t have to dig deep to find the headlines warning of massive job displacement, existential threats to humanity, or the collapse of systems as we know them. In some ways, these concerns are valid. In other ways, they’re just normal amounts of concern anytime something disruptive enters our lives.

But this time, it’s different. And I don’t say that lightly.

According to AltIndex.com, AI adoption is expected to hit 378 million users in 2025. By 2030, that number is projected to double to over 700 million users. While these are big numbers, what they also reflect is a global shift in how we think, work, create, and connect. Whether we realize it or not, AI is already shaping the way we live. The deeper question, I think, is how we are shaping it in return.

This is not the same as the emergence of Google, or Amazon, or the first social media platforms. Those changed how we access information or connect with others, yes. But this is something else entirely. With AI, we are no longer just building tools. We are creating an adaptive, evolving intelligence that learns from us, grows alongside us, and in many cases, outpaces us.

And that’s where things get complicated.

What we’ve created isn’t necessarily conscious, but it is responsive. It can analyze, generate, predict, and mimic. And it’s doing so based on everything we’ve ever produced – from published articles to passing thoughts, from code to casual conversations. AI is learning what it means to be human based on the sum total of what it observes. And we’re feeding it more every day.

That should give us pause. Not because AI is inherently dangerous, but because we haven’t collectively stopped to consider our responsibility in shaping it. We are, in a very real sense, raising a kind of global child. And yet, we’ve offered very little in terms of moral instruction, ethical scaffolding, or shared a vision for humanity. We’ve focused on power, speed, and potential, but not purpose.

If you’ve ever raised or mentored a child, you know that intelligence alone isn’t what creates wholeness. It’s not what makes someone wise, or kind, or trustworthy. We don’t just hand kids information and assume they’ll figure it out. We guide them. We model values. We create structure. We remind them, through word and action, of what it means to live in community with others.

We haven’t done that with AI. Not yet.

We need to stop treating AI like a science project. It’s not an experiment we’re running to see what happens. It’s a system we’ve released into the world. And it’s one that learns from what we do, not just what we say. We’ve been acting like observers with a hypothesis, waiting to see the results. But we’re not outside the experiment anymore – we’re inside. We are shaping the outcome whether we realize it or not. And this means we have to shift from experimenters to stewards, from passive users to responsible leaders.

That means asking harder questions. Slowing down long enough to consider the implications of what we automate, what we outsource, and what we normalize. It means bringing values into the conversation – not as a feature, but as a foundation.

We don’t have to panic. But we do have to participate. Because AI isn’t raising itself. We are. And what it becomes is, in many ways, a reflection of what we chose to care about while it was learning from us.

So here’s the thing. We can help shape a better future for AI. That might mean insisting on ethical foundations in the tools we use, joining conversations about how values shape AI learning, or simply backing efforts that prioritize human-centered development.

When we bring our values, our wisdom, and our humanity to this process, we open the door to incredible possibilities for innovation, connection, and solving some of the world’s most pressing challenges. Our path forward isn’t about control or fear. It’s about choosing, together, what kind of intelligence we want to raise.

#SoarAboveAchieveBeyond