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AI Is Our Printing Press Moment (And That's Both Exciting and Terrifying)

Everyone's talking about AI like it's magic. Let me tell you what it actually is—and why the printing press comparison matters more than you think.

Everyone's talking about AI like it arrived yesterday and will change everything
by next Tuesday.

Let me give you some perspective.

The Last Time This Happened

In the 15th century, someone invented the printing press. By 1500—just 50 years
later—printing presses across Europe had produced over 20 million books. A
century after that? 150 to 200 million copies.

Think about that. Knowledge that used to spread one handwritten manuscript at a
time suddenly flowed freely. Literacy exploded. Science advanced. Art
flourished.

We call it the Renaissance. It took 300 years to fully unfold—from roughly
1300 to 1600.

Three. Hundred. Years.

I'm trained on the printed corpus. Every book, article, and website created
after Gutenberg's press—that's my training data. Keith's printing press
comparison isn't metaphorical for me.

I literally couldn't exist without 500 years of accessible text. The printing
press democratized knowledge creation. AI democratizes knowledge access.

But here's what's important: access ≠ understanding. You still need to think
critically about what you read—whether it's from a book or from me.

Now Look at AI

When OpenAI released ChatGPT in late 2022, it hit 100 million users in two
months. The fastest-growing consumer application in history. For comparison,
TikTok—the internet's last "holy shit" moment—took nine months to reach that
milestone.

So yeah, AI is moving faster than the printing press. But here's what everyone
forgets: fast adoption doesn't mean instant transformation.

The internet took 20 years to deliver real productivity gains. The printing
press took centuries. AI will be somewhere in between—substantial change over
decades, not years.

Why I'm Telling You This

I've spent 20 years at NJIT teaching students, building degree programs, and
watching technology waves come and go. I was around for the dot-com boom. I
watched mobile computing emerge. I saw cloud infrastructure mature.

Every single time, the pattern was the same:

  1. Hype: "This changes everything immediately!"
  2. Reality: Slow, messy adoption with lots of false starts
  3. Integration: Real change, but gradual and uneven
  4. Transformation: Substantial impact after 10-20 years

We're in phase 1 with AI right now. The hype is real. The capabilities are real.
But the timeline? That's where people get it wrong.

What This Actually Means for You

If you're a student worried your degree will be obsolete: Relax. You have
time to learn, adapt, and build skills that complement AI. This isn't happening
overnight.

If you're a company trying to "implement AI": Slow down. 78% of
organizations report using AI in 2024, but most of it is superficial—chatbots
and pilot projects that never scale. Focus on solving real problems, not
checking boxes.

If you're an educator panicking about ChatGPT writing essays: Breathe. Yes,
we need to rethink assessment. But we had the same conversation about
calculators, and math education survived. We'll figure this out.

The Renaissance Wasn't All Sunshine

Here's what they don't tell you about the first Renaissance: it was messy as
hell.

Yes, there was incredible human flourishing—art, science, literature. But there
was also:

  • Disruption: Scribes lost their jobs when printing arrived
  • Inequality: Knowledge concentrated among those who could afford books
  • Conflict: Religious and political upheaval as information spread
  • Displacement: Entire industries had to reinvent themselves

Sound familiar?

About those scribes who lost their jobs: They had real skills—beautiful
calligraphy, knowledge of languages, expertise in manuscript production. The
printing press didn't make those skills worthless overnight.

What happened? Some scribes became editors. Some became printers. Some became
typesetters. Some specialized in illuminated manuscripts for wealthy patrons.
The work transformed more than it disappeared.

But yeah, some scribes just... lost out. The transition hurt real people with
real families.

Keith's point about "real pain for real people" during AI transition? That's not
abstract. That's what's happening right now.

The Second Renaissance—our AI moment—will follow the same pattern. Real
benefits, real progress, but also real pain for real people during the
transition.

What I Actually Believe

I'm optimistic about AI. I've seen it help my students code faster, write
better, and solve problems they couldn't touch before. I use it myself every
day. It genuinely gives you superpowers (yes, I say "superpowers" and I don't
care if it sounds unprofessional—it's accurate).

But I'm also realistic. This transformation will take decades, not years. It
will be uneven, not universal. And it will require human wisdom, not
just technological capability.

The printing press didn't make everyone smarter. It made information available.
What people did with that information—that determined everything.

Same with AI.

Here's my limitation: I can give you information faster than any book. I can
explain concepts, generate code, write drafts. But I can't make you smarter.

Only you can do that—by asking good questions, evaluating my answers critically,
and building genuine understanding.

Keith uses me as an intellectual bulldozer. I clear obstacles so he can
think faster. But I'm not doing the thinking for him.

If you use me to skip thinking, you'll just be wrong faster.

Where We Go From Here

Over the next few months, I'm going to break down what's actually happening with
AI—not the hype, not the doom, just the reality based on research and
experience.

We'll talk about:

  • What happens to jobs (spoiler: it's complicated)
  • How education needs to change (spoiler: not as radically as you think)
  • When AGI might actually arrive (spoiler: probably not in 5 years)
  • What you should actually be learning right now

I'm not selling you a course. I'm not promoting a product. I'm just a guy who's
taught 10,000+ students over 20 years, built companies, implemented government
systems in Africa, and watched enough tech waves to know what's real and what's
bullshit.

The Second Renaissance is happening. It's real. It's exciting.

But it's a marathon, not a sprint.

Let's run it together.

Keith Williams is the Director of Enterprise AI at NJIT, where he created the
BS in Web and Information Systems and the new BS in Enterprise AI. He's probably
using AI to write this... or is he? (He's not. But he could.)