Source: Illustration: DALL-E/OpenAI

​​​​​​Throughout history, each new wave of technology has arrived accompanied by a familiar set of anxieties: the fear that our work, our creativityand even our humanity could be diminished. Today, with the rapid growth of artificial intelligence and major linguistic models, these concerns seem more pressing than ever. Will AI replace our ingenuity? Will this take the color out of our creative lives, relegating us to passive spectators as machines take center stage? Are we destined to see the “opportunity pie” being cut into smaller and smaller pieces, leaving us with fewer and fewer things to claim as uniquely ours?

Let’s take a deep breath and step back to consider a more powerful narrative. What if, rather than reducing our role, technology had always done something else? Instead of confining us, it creates an expanding circle, which opens new areas of possibility and invites more voices, more ideas and more stories.

Look closely, and this pattern emerges throughout the story. Photography and chess, two seemingly unrelated fields, reveal how technology is not only changing the way we create; it fundamentally redefines what creativity itself can be.

Photography: a story told by millions of people

Photography began as an exclusive profession, a laborious process requiring heavy equipment, chemistry and expert hands. Only a few skilled artists could capture an image, and each photograph was a testament to time, skill, and patience. Yet as cameras evolved—becoming portable, accessible, and eventually small enough to fit in a pocket—this art form has not eclipsed the portrait painter or diminished the profound artistic talent of visionaries like Ansel Adams. Instead, the circle widened, allowing more people to engage and create, eventually expanding to what might once have seemed unthinkable: the selfie.

This development has not made photography or artistic talent obsolete; it made creativity universal. What was once a rare skill has transformed into a shared language.

Today, billions of people document their lives, share personal stories and perspectives, and make connections across geography and culture. Artistic talent has not disappeared; it multiplied. Photography as a profession has not disappeared; he found new expressions, from portraiture to photojournalism, from street photography to digital art. THE borders of creativity has moved outwards, widening the circle to include both the masterful artist and the everyday storyteller.

Now as artificial intelligence seeps into photography, we are once again faced with familiar fears: will AI-generated images diminish human creativity? But history tells us otherwise. Just as digital cameras have democratized photography, AI can expand our visual language, offering new ways of seeing and imagining. Rather than replacing our creative spark, it enriches the circle even further, adding layers to the artistic landscape and inviting us into an ever-expanding world of creative possibilities.

Chess: the game reinvented

The history of chess offers another insight into how technology doesn’t end our contributions: it redefines them. In 1997, IBM’s Deep Blue defeated Garry Kasparov, marking a new era in computing and, some feared, the death knell for competitive chess. After all, if machines could surpass grandmasters, what was left for humans? Yet two decades later, chess has never been more popular and its ecosystem is richer than ever.

Today, players around the world rely on AI-powered chess engines for their training, strategy, and knowledge. Far from making chess obsolete, these tools have enhanced its appeal, adding layers of complexity and fascination. Players study moves discovered by chess engines, positions no human would have imagined.

The AI ​​didn’t steal the game from us; he reinvented it. Chess has evolved from a strictly human endeavor to a collaborative dance, one that stretches the human spirit to new heights.

The Expanding Circle of AI

So, what about AI in our everyday lives? As AI infiltrates fields from medicine to art, there are echoes of these familiar fears. Can machines replace our doctors, our artists, our thinkers? Will they reduce the role of human ingenuity, leaving us spectators of an automated world?

But look again, and the expanding circle appears here too. History has shown us that technology rarely diminishes our creativity; it pushes us into new spaces. Rather than being confined, our creative boundaries expand. The presence of AI doesn’t just automate; he invites collaboration. Writers experiment with AI-generated prompts, artists mix machine and hand, and scientists use AI to discover hidden patterns in mountains of data. Instead of being replaced, we are redefined, finding new edges to explore.

Human cognition on the chopping block of obsolescence

However, during previous technological changes, innovations like the washing machine or the smartphone did not threaten our core business. identify– they simply improved convenience. But with advances in AI, we face a different, more worrying type of vulnerability. It’s not just our skills or routines that are at stake; it’s human cognition himself who appears on the block of obsolescence.

It’s not just about machines doing tasks for us; these are machines that could surpass us in areas that we have long considered to be uniquely human: creativity, problem solving, even empathy. The expanding circle that once invited us to new forms of engagement now raises complex questions. Are we giving up aspects of our intellect that, once lost, cannot be regained? As AI transforms into a tool that reflects our cognitive abilities, we find ourselves in a paradox: AI may increase our potential, but it also poses an unprecedented challenge to our very sense of identity and worth.

Welcoming the expanding circle

Entering this expanding circle requires a change in mindset. We can view technology as an ally, not a rival. Think of AI as a catalyst, a collaborator on an ongoing journey, helping us unlock creative expressions we have yet to discover. Technology is therefore not a zero-sum game but a means of drawing a wider and richer circle around our human potential.

Look at photography, chess, any field touched by technology, and the same story plays out. The expanding circle pushes us to rethink, reinvent and reach new heights. AI may seem disruptive, but this disruption is just the next chapter in an ongoing story: a story of human creativity adapting and thriving alongside technological progress.

So the future is not about AI replacing us. This is AI inviting us to grow. The question is not whether machines will surpass us, but rather how we will grow with them, how we will take ownership of the expanding circle. This is the true power of technology: not to diminish us, but to elevate us into spaces we have not yet imagined.