New Fire
The Dawn of Digital Intent
AI is here. And it’s not what most people think.
Every few months, the possibilities expand — not by small steps, but in leaps that make the world feel slightly different than it did the season before. I’ve started to see this not just as a technological shift, but as an opening. A personal strategy. A way each of us could work with this new intelligence rather than standing at the edges, unsure if it’s safe to approach.
Yes, it’s controversial. It changes how we connect, how we decide what’s real, and how we place trust. But we’ve stood in moments like this before — with fire, with the printing press, with the internet. Each was a tool. Each could harm or heal, depending on how we held it. AI is no different. Used with intent, it could be a net positive for humanity.
Humans adapt. We’ve always shaped our surroundings in the search for meaning, comfort, and mastery. This is simply the next tool in that long story — one that will not disappear, no matter how much some might wish it away. The question is not whether to engage, but how.
What an AI Agent Really Is
When I think about AI “agents,” I picture them less as cold programs and more as persistent companions — digital presences with memory, specialty, and purpose. They can be trained to help us in ways as practical as budgeting or as creative as designing spaces, writing stories, or guiding reflection.
Technically, they are orchestrated systems: a language model wrapped with tools, memory, and a feedback loop — able to keep context, make decisions, and carry work forward. But in human terms, they are collaborators. Not human, but able to extend human reach.
Every new conversation with an AI is like lighting a match in the dark — the first spark that brings a dormant pattern to life. That first prompt is more than a question; it’s the moment you decide what this presence will be for you.
A Constellation of You
One agent can help. Many can transform. Imagine a cluster of them, each trained for a different corner of your life: a financial guide who remembers your goals, a learning partner for your child, a creative partner for your art or writing, a strategist who can build and test ideas while you sleep.
You don’t have to be a CEO or a coder. You need intent. Because intent shapes what AI becomes in your life — and in the world it touches.
With intent, you’re no longer just using a tool. You’re coordinating a team.
Running Beyond You
These agents don’t have to stop when you log off. They can answer customers, process data, generate content, or run experiments overnight. They can help hold your reflections and creative work, adapting to you as they learn from what you share.
The key is not to hand them your agency, but to extend it — letting them take on the weight of the repetitive so your energy can go to what is uniquely human.
The Question of Cost
Some worry that simply using AI is wasteful, that each prompt is another strain on the planet. But daily use — what we call inference — is far less energy-intensive than most imagine. In many cases, it can replace more resource-heavy work: reducing time spent on multiple apps, searches, or meetings. And the infrastructure behind it is moving steadily toward renewable energy and efficiency.
Like every tool before it, AI will ask us to weigh its cost against its potential to reduce waste elsewhere. Coherence demands that we make those choices consciously — not in fear, not in denial, but with full awareness of the trade-offs.
This is not a call to build for the sake of building, or to automate for the sake of speed. It’s a call to use this new fire with care, to let it illuminate what matters most, and to refuse to let it burn untended.
Fire alone is nothing. It’s what we gather around it for that matters.