AI & I · Wednesday, September 2, 2026
Katie Parrott presents her thesis that education and access are paramount for the equitable distribution of AI's benefits. She advocates for making AI tools accessible to a broader range of people, regardless of their location or economic background, to prevent value from concentrating among a select few.
“My thesis on AI today is that education and access are going to matter more than they ever have before. So something I feel very strongly about is the distribution of opportunity. I am based in Columbus, Ohio. I grew up in the Midwest. I haven't really spent time in New York or SF or Austin and all these big tech hubs. And I believe, but I believe really strongly that this technology should be in the hands of as many people as possible.”
“But in order for that to happen, you have to create the right conditions. So I'm very fortunate in the fact that I have connections. Like, I have access to really great thinkers, and like, I can learn from Kieran, I can learn from Dan, I can learn from you. But all of that has been facilitated by the fact that I have a certain amount of economic comfort. I have a certain amount of free time and budget to experiment with these tools and like get a subscription and vibe code until 2 a .m. if that's what's interesting to me.”
“And I think that what I want to challenge the AI community with is thinking about how we can expand those kinds of opportunities to more people and more kinds of people in more different places. Because AI does have this huge multiplicative capacity to end this compounding capacity. But the risk there is that value is going to compound to the small subset of people that happen to be early. And I just think that a much more compelling vision for an AI future is one where everyone is able to come along for the ride.”