Progress needs a direction.

For the second time, I am experiencing a technology change what we believe possible. The first time it was the internet. Much of what we take for granted today was then hard to imagine.

Today artificial intelligence is bringing another such moment. I am interested in what this technology can do. Above all, I am interested in what we do with it and which ideas we can now bring to life.

Doing more, faster, with AI does not automatically create value. At the same time, it would be a shame not to explore the new possibilities.

New things emerge through experimentation

When I founded my first company, we began with multimedia and later worked with the internet. We learned a great deal as the possibilities around us kept changing.

That was precisely what interested me: not knowing everything in advance, but discovering what the new made possible. For me that includes trying something, discarding a thought and continuing differently.

Not every idea works. Some need time; others may be ahead of their time. And sometimes we only realise along the way that the real opportunity lies somewhere else entirely.

Thinking further opens new paths

I want to understand how things work. Once I understand their parts, I can sometimes put them together differently. This creates connections that may not have been obvious before.

We do not always have to know at the beginning what the end will look like. But we should be willing to learn and change our ideas.

Ultimately, I want to see what becomes of an idea and what difference it makes.

Where art explores the future

Art has always been more to me than the finished work. I have also understood it as a seismograph, registering what concerns people and society, and as a space for exploring ideas long before we know what they will mean.

Early in my career I visited Ars Electronica and ZKM, the Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe. I encountered ideas there that remain with me today. Stelarc’s performances especially stayed in my memory: he connected his body to machines and made questions visible that then seemed far in the future.

Today we see research into interfaces between the brain and computers. In early applications, people can control devices using brain signals. I remember those earlier images. Art had opened a space in which I could first imagine this connection between human and machine.

Science fiction has occupied me in a similar way. I read Zeitstopp by Peter Schattschneider, a physicist and author. That combination fascinates me: a scientist uses stories to take ideas further and explore possibilities for which there are no final answers.

What occupies me today is where that exchange happens. Where do art, science and technology meet to imagine the day after tomorrow?

I look for such spaces, and for people and ideas that challenge me to reconsider and develop my own thinking. Much of what once seemed impossible begins with someone imagining it.

Perhaps that is why I am interested in what is emerging between people and AI today: not only the tasks we can solve, but the new thoughts that grow from working together.

When a result looks right

I see people working with AI in very different ways. Some use it to do tasks better or faster. Others suddenly tackle things themselves for which they previously depended on the skills of others.

I use these new possibilities too. I want to understand how the result I receive came about. I have no problem with a machine contributing knowledge I do not possess.

Something else concerns me: how do I judge a result when I lack experience in that field?

It can look convincing and still have weaknesses. It may even work. But is it a good solution? Or is there a better one I cannot yet recognise?

I find this especially interesting where there is no single clear answer: in design and art, for example, or in ideas born of inspiration, different experiences and disagreement.

AI can suggest possibilities and prompt thoughts I might not have reached myself. Something new can emerge from that interaction. I then want to know whether the result truly advances my idea and expresses what I want to say.

That is why learning is part of working with AI for me. I do not need to be able to do everything myself, but I want to understand enough to ask good questions, recognise alternatives and make my own decisions.

When machines become part of collaboration

We used to describe personas to better understand who we were developing for. We asked what people needed and how they interacted with a product.

Today we also think about how to integrate machines and AI systems into our work. We give them roles and tasks, talk to them and design processes in which they participate.

In a conversation with AI, my own question sometimes changes. I start with an idea and realise along the way that something else is really on my mind. What emerges is not simply an answer, but a thought I can develop further.

Collaboration changes with it. Machines become part of our workflows in new ways. I am interested in how we shape this interaction and what it makes possible.

Experience and judgement remain important to me. When machines take on tasks, I want to understand which decisions I leave to them and which I must make myself.

What really creates value?

Being busy does not automatically create value. I find this thought especially important today.

We can write texts, develop ideas, start projects and produce results. But at some point we should ask what comes of it. Does it help someone? Do we understand a problem better? Can we make a decision that was not possible before?

For me, value cannot always be expressed immediately in numbers. Sometimes it emerges in a conversation that gives rise to a new idea, or when people find a path together that they might not have seen alone.

What remains when everything changes?

Another question occupies me: does anything have to remain?

I enjoy discovering new things and seeing possibilities that were not there before. Perhaps part of what creates value lies in that pursuit of the new.

At the same time, there are things I do not want to lose: trust between people, curiosity and a willingness to take responsibility. They can provide direction as technologies, businesses and the way we collaborate change.

I believe progress needs both: the courage to try something new and attention to what matters to us.