The Sunday BlindSpot | Issue 01

The Risk We’re Racing Past

Welcome to The Sunday BlindSpot — a weekly reflection on something from the tech world that deserves more of our attention. Not the loudest headline or the latest product drop, but the quiet tension just beneath the surface. The thing we’re moving too fast to fully process.

This week’s blind spot?

The uncomfortable intersection of AI progress and existential risk.

I spent some time with an episode of Diary of a CEO, where Geoffrey Hinton – one of the pioneers of artificial intelligence – speaks with Steven Bartlett about where we’re headed. What stood out most wasn’t the bold predictions or the technical detail, but the calm clarity with which he said: we may be creating something we can’t control.

Not tomorrow. Not next year. But somewhere down the track, we could face a scenario where an advanced AI system creates a slow-moving, highly infectious biological agent. A virus that spreads before we know what we’re dealing with. A quiet undoing, set in motion by the very tools we’re building to help us.

It sounds extreme – until you remember who’s saying it.

But here’s the complexity: while those long-term risks are real and sobering, AI is also doing a lot of good right now. Especially in healthcare.

Machine learning models are getting better at spotting early-stage cancers – in some cases, with accuracy approaching that of trained specialists. AI is improving radiology, speeding up diagnoses, guiding treatment decisions, and expanding access to care in ways that simply weren’t possible before.

It’s incredible.

It’s hopeful.

It’s the kind of progress we want to celebrate.

But here’s the blind spot:

In our rush to innovate, are we leaving enough room to reflect?

Are we so focused on what’s possible that we’ve stopped asking what’s wise?

This moment in tech feels a lot like a rollercoaster we can’t get off.

The ride is thrilling. The view is breathtaking. But the speed?

It’s a little terrifying – because no one seems quite sure where it ends, or how we hit the brakes if we need to.

That’s not a call for panic. It’s a call for pause.

To make space for frameworks, safety nets, and serious conversations – not just in labs and boardrooms, but in public.

Because the most dangerous risks aren’t the ones we talk about.

They’re the ones we assume someone else is taking care of.

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🎧 If you haven’t heard the episode, it’s worth a listen – not because it offers certainty, but because it reminds us how urgently we need to ask better questions.