Writer says AI has made technology faceless

Writer Bergur Ebbi Benediktsson says technology, particularly artificial intelligence, has become increasingly faceless, with no clear leaders shaping its development. He made the comments in an interview with mbl.is, discussing his new book, The Age of Imagination.

Bergur said figures such as Steve Jobs and Bill Gates once presented new technologies and offered visions of how they might be used. He said that kind of visible leadership now seems to be missing, and questioned whether technological progress should be measured mainly by increased consumption, faster work and efficiency.

In the interview with Árni Matthíasson on mbl.is’s Dagmál programme, Bergur discusses the relationship between people and technology, including how rapid advances and the arrival of AI affect thought, emotions and people’s ideas about the future.

He said algorithms can reach into people’s vulnerable feelings and make use of what they fear or strongly desire. “It has found a way into some gaps in the heart, possibly a weakness, something we are afraid of or something we really want and cannot quite fulfil,” he said.

The questions became personal as Bergur wrote the book and grieved the death of his brother, who worked in information technology and was an important role model to him, including in his outlook on technology and its possibilities.

Bergur connected his brother with a generation that helped build the internet and saw it as a chance to shape the future. His loss, he said, became intertwined with his questions about leadership in technology. “I lost the leader in my life, in a way, and I am trying to work through what comes next. Who is leading us forward in this?”