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A few weeks ago, I attended the @gatesfoundation’s Goalkeepers, where I heard stories about AI being used in ways we don’t always picture when we talk about the technology: from farmers in India using it to better understand their crops to entrepreneurs in rural communities using it to build beekeeping businesses.
I don’t think that means we should be uncritical of AI. There are real questions I ask about bias, privacy, labor, access, environmental impact, and who holds the power behind these tools. The promise and the risks can exist at the same time.
But innovation isn’t really progress unless the people who could benefit from it most actually get to and unless we’re willing to understand and address the harms along the way. Grateful for the conversations, the people, and the reminder to keep asking the bigger question: who gets to benefit? #Goalkeepers2026
Transcript
A few weeks ago, I was in New York for Gates Foundation's goalkeepers, and I'm still thinking about some of the conversations I had there. Every year, goalkeepers brings together people from around the world working across different industries. This year, a huge part of the conversation was AI, but not in the way we usually talk about it. There's this experience where they had us agree or disagree with different statements about AI. One of them basically asked, is AI even the conversation we should be having? And after answering all of them, apparently, I'm the bigger picture thinker, which makes sense. Because one of my favorite moments from the entire best, other than seeing Yvonne or Gee in person, was about farmers in India tier are already using AI to better understand what's happening with their crops, things like disease, best, weather, and what they can do next. When most of us hear AI, we think about chatbots, which might replace us. But it was interesting hearing from a beekeeper in a rural community using their phone to start a business. That's an AI use too, which makes me wonder who actually gets to benefit from innovation. That was probably my biggest takeaway from goalkeepers this year. Whether we're talking about AI, health care, education, environment, agriculture, progress isn't about building something new. It's about making sure that progress actually reaches the people that most need it.
