Why AI Is a Train, Not a Bicycle

In 1981, a young Steve Jobs—bearded, bespectacled, brown corduroy blazer over an open-collared shirt—sat in front of an Apple II and explained what he thought a personal computer was for. He’d read an article in Scientific American that compared the efficiency of locomotion across species. The condor, he said, came out on top. Humans ranked about a third of the way down, “not too proud a showing for the crown of creation.” But then someone had the insight to test a human on a bicycle, and the cyclist blew the condor away.