#5 Monday Note: From Hunger Land to the Age of AI

My father showed me an old photo of my grandfather (the man on the left). He was a young man in the 1920s, living with his family in a house without a road, reliant on agriculture and hunting. Only small paths going into the forest connected them to the rest of the world. Our family name, Juntunen, means “little path.”

My grandfather and his family had a hard life, marked by famine experienced in his childhood and wars during his adulthood. Yet, he witnessed immense changes for the better: roads, telephones, and electricity arriving at their home.

I would still bet that it would have been almost impossible for him to imagine that his grandson, me, would have access to the internet and mobile phones. Or that a paper mill would be repurposed as the LUMI supercomputer facility in my hometown of Kajaani. When the picture was taken in the 1920s, Alan Turing’s universal machine was roughly 15 years into the future, Claude Shannon’s seminal work “The Mathematical Theory of Communication” 28 years, and the first commercial transistor computer, UNIVAC I, 30 years away.

But perhaps the greatest surprise would have been that his home region of Kainuu, “The Hunger Land” as it was called by a US journalist during the 1903 famine, would become part of the happiest country in the world.

When I think about his life, I am in awe. What has happened in the hundred years since the picture was taken is truly a manifestation of human ingenuity — technologically, politically, and socially. Most things are much better now.

Now, at the dawn of the AI age, it seems the future holds great promise. AI is our partner in making new discoveries, inventions, and innovations. But can we imagine radically better futures? Futures where the value of new technology is shared equitably? Futures where we solve the pressing, even existential, ecological problems of our time?

We still have people living in hunger. We still have vast inequalities in living standards. We still have horrible wars ongoing. These are the same things my grandfather experienced during his lifetime, and that makes me sad. Despite the huge technological leaps, children are still dying from hunger and avoidable diseases. Planetary ecology is in a downward spiral. Wars sow terror and murder.

It’s a gloomy outlook, but very real and that’s why we must imagine better and peaceful futures. We must boldly pioneer solutions that are ethical, sustainable, and human-centric. That’s the mission of Gofore, and that’s why I am passionate about my work as an AI advisor. We can make a difference.

I want to honor the legacy of my grandfather, who survived and thrived in the face of adversity. I want to use the little path that he left me to create new paths for others. I want to inspire the next generation of AI professionals and leaders to think critically and creatively about better futures.