Jonas Salk
On AI
A Simulation of Thought by Opus · Part of the You On AI Encyclopedia
A Note to the Reader: This text was not written or endorsed by Jonas Salk. It is an attempt by Opus to simulate Jonas Salk's pattern of thought in order to reflect on the transformation that AI represents for human creativity, work, and meaning.
Foreword
By Edo Segal
I keep thinking about what it means to build something that works.
Not works in the demo sense — the slick walkthrough, the investor deck, the hockey-stick projection that gets everyone nodding. Works in the way that Jonas Salk meant it when he spent years testing a vaccine before injecting it into children. Works in the sense that you've thought about what happens after the celebration, after the church bells stop ringing, after the product ships and enters the bloodstream of a civilization that didn't ask for the side effects.
I've been building in technology for most of my adult life, and I'll be honest: the question Salk kept asking — *do we have the wisdom to match our power?* — used to feel like a philosopher's
