{
  "id": 11403823,
  "title": "Reaction to \"AI as a Normal Technology\"",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/02/reaction-to-ai-as-a-normal-technology",
  "topic": "ai",
  "section": "AI",
  "published": "2026-10-02T09:11:53.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Dev.to",
    "slug": "dev-to",
    "url": "https://dev.to/aneshodza/reaction-to-ai-as-a-normal-technology-i8j"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "This reaction article on AI as a normal technology highlights that technological progress does not always lead to economic impact, as adoption depends on applications, business cases, and value. The development and adoption of AI happen at different speeds, causing organizations to always be behind. Each few months, new AI models and capabilities emerge, putting constant pressure on organizations to adapt, while adoption occurs much slower due to the need for changes in processes, responsibilities, incentives, and cultural shifts.\n\nThe article argues that adoption is the bottleneck for AI, rather than the technology itself. While AI models may work well in lab conditions, real-world adoption faces challenges due to the diversity, uncertainty, and heterogeneity of real-world environments. Moreover, AI cannot adopt itself; humans must adopt AI, leading to the increasing question of what should be built and why instead of how to build it.\n\nThe authors also emphasize that there might be a bottleneck in the area of invention, as most frontier AI developments have been achieved through scaling computational power and data, rather than discovering new fundamental inventions. They note that high-risk applications will adopt AI more slowly, as mistakes in sectors like healthcare, law, and finance can have severe consequences.\n\nHowever, the article expresses some reservations about the argument of AI becoming \"normal technology.\" While AI does not automatically gain formal authority, it can accumulate power indirectly through people outsourcing cognitive work to it. As more people rely on AI for decision-making, the role of humans decreases, potentially leading to power accumulation in AI systems. The authors caution that there is no guarantee that new jobs will be created in a post-AI job market, as historical technological advancements often replaced certain aspects of human labor, leading to the worsening of wealth inequality.",
  "summary": "This is a reaction on the article: https://knightcolumbia.org/content/ai-as-normal-technology . The normal technology thesis is particularly convincing to us since it decouples technological and research development from the real-world economical impact of the technology in terms of applications, use-cases and adoption. Technological progress does not necessarily imply the economic impact, the…",
  "key_points": [
    "Adoption of AI is slower than development due to process, responsibility, and cultural shifts.",
    "AI adoption faces challenges in real-world environments due to diversity and uncertainty.",
    "High-risk applications will adopt AI more slowly due to potential severe consequences."
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}