It’s difficult to remember a time in the last few decades when the pressures of new technology were as immediate and tangible as today. Squeezed between AI hype and the fear of what it might lead to, it’s often hard to maintain perspective. In education, we worry about the effects of offloading work to AI and the risk of students losing the ability to think critically. Our fears are valid; general-purpose, consumer AI often feels like a profit-driven experiment being run on society in real time. 

But let’s look past the hype to other stories, stories that show incredible promise in fields of science and engineering. Many of the most profound gains are happening now, without much public awareness. 

In medicine, AI-assisted diagnostics are no longer experimental; they are becoming standard and catching early-stage cancers and fractures with a precision that saves lives daily. Specialized AI tools like Alphafold and IsoDDE are rapidly accelerating therapeutic drug discovery. By using AI models to identify new molecules, researchers are developing treatments for chronic diseases with significantly fewer side effects and lower production costs.

This same accelerated discovery is transforming material sciences. Physical chemists are identifying new compounds for high-efficiency batteries and carbon-capture structures at a rate that would have taken centuries of manual trial and error. Many technologies we now take for granted owe their existence to battery breakthroughs. Battery technologies being developed now will far surpass what’s possible today.

I’ve heard some adults say, regarding AI and technology, “I’m just glad I’m not growing up now.” I disagree. This is a fascinating time to be a student. Our children have incredible opportunities on the cutting edge of academic research and entrepreneurship. 

These advancements—from medicine to astronomy—prove that technology is doing what it has always done: extending the reach of human capability. In that sense, our era is no different than our grandparents’. The fundamental challenge remains the same: we must distinguish between the tools that help us work better and the tools that merely encourage us to avoid the work of thinking.