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The End of the Permission Slip InternetWe’ve all been living in a digital world built on... The End of the Permission Slip Internet
We’ve all been living in a digital world built on a foundation of suspicion. You know the feeling. It’s that constant, low-grade friction of modern online life. The endless pop-ups demanding you accept cookies you don’t understand. The distorted text and grainy photos asking, with a kind of robotic indifference, “Are you a robot?” It’s an internet that treats us not as collaborators, but as potential threats or, at best, data points to be harvested. A world governed by privacy policies so dense they feel designed to be ignored.
This is the permission-slip internet. A landscape of gates and guards where every interaction begins with a check, a confirmation, a consent box. We’ve been trained to click “accept” without reading, to prove our humanity to a machine, to navigate a system that feels fundamentally transactional and sterile. For years, this has been the quiet hum beneath the surface of progress—the necessary, if joyless, cost of doing business online.
But what if that entire paradigm is about to be shattered? What if we’re on the cusp of a new era, one defined not by permission slips and robotic checkpoints, but by partnership and explosive, collaborative growth? I believe we are. And the blueprint for this new world comes from an idea that Nvidia’s CEO, Jensen Huang, calls the “virtuous cycle” of AI (Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says AI is in a ‘virtuous cycle.’ Here’s what he means). When I first heard him frame it this way, it wasn't just another piece of corporate jargon; it was a lens that brought the entire future into focus. This is the kind of breakthrough thinking that reminds me why I got into this field in the first place.
The Engine of Everything
So, what is this "virtuous cycle"? It sounds simple, but its implications are staggering. At its core, it’s a self-reinforcing loop of innovation. Think of it like a blacksmith’s forge. The massive computational power of new hardware—the hammer, if you will—allows us to build bigger, smarter AI models. These models, the white-hot iron, can then process incredible amounts of data and solve problems we previously couldn't touch. The insights and efficiencies gained from these models create new demand and economic incentive to build an even more powerful hammer. Hardware drives software, which in turn drives new hardware.
It’s an exponential feedback loop. But here’s the part everyone misses: it’s not just about making computers faster. That’s the old way of thinking. The real magic, the paradigm shift, is what this cycle unlocks for us. We’re moving from a world where we command machines to a world where we create with them. This cycle is the engine that will power a new renaissance in science, art, and human ingenuity. It’s the force that will finally tear up the permission slips and invite us to build, not just browse.
This isn’t some far-off sci-fi dream. It’s happening right now, in conversations happening over… well, over fried chicken. Recently, Jensen Huang was pictured sharing a meal with the CEOs of Samsung and Hyundai (Jensen Huang dines on fried chicken with Samsung and Hyundai CEOs). On the surface, it’s a photo-op. A business dinner. But look deeper. What does that image truly represent? It’s the fusion of the three pillars of this new age: the AI compute engine (Nvidia), the hardware and memory that brings it to life (Samsung), and the real-world industrial application that will change how we move and live (Hyundai).
What do you think they were really talking about? Was it just about chip orders and supply chains? Or were they sketching out the future on a napkin, imagining a world where cars don’t just drive themselves but become personalized, generative spaces that learn and adapt to their occupants, a world where our phones are not just portals to the permission-slip internet but true AI companions that help us create? The speed of this collaboration is just breathtaking—it means the gap between a wild idea scribbled over dinner and a reality in our hands is closing faster than we can even comprehend.
From Abstract Loops to Human Reality
This is where the abstract concept of a “virtuous cycle” becomes intensely personal. It’s about to change the texture of our daily lives. The AI born from this cycle won’t just be better at recognizing images in a CAPTCHA test; it will be a co-pilot for discovery. Imagine a biologist using an AI to simulate protein folding in minutes, a process that used to take years, leading to rapid drug discovery. Imagine an architect collaborating with an AI to design a sustainable building that actively responds to its environment, optimizing energy use in real-time.
This is all powered by what are called generative models—in simpler terms, AI that doesn’t just analyze data but can create something entirely new from it. It can write code, compose music, design products, and generate novel ideas. We’re building a tool that amplifies not just our productivity, but our creativity. This moment feels akin to the invention of the printing press. Before Gutenberg, knowledge was hoarded, locked away, and painstakingly copied by hand. The press didn’t just make copying books faster; it democratized knowledge, sparked revolutions, and laid the groundwork for the modern world. It unlocked human potential on a scale previously unimaginable. This AI cycle is our printing press.
Of course, with any technology this powerful, we have to talk about the responsibility that comes with it. The same cycle that can accelerate medical breakthroughs could also be used to create autonomous weapons or spread misinformation at an unprecedented scale. The challenge for us—for the engineers, the policymakers, the users—is to embed our values into this technology from the very beginning. We must ensure this "virtuous cycle" remains virtuous for humanity, not just for a handful of corporations. How do we build the guardrails of empathy, ethics, and oversight without stifling the very innovation that promises so much?
The answer, I believe, lies in keeping the human element at the center of the story. It lies in remembering that this is all for us. The goal isn’t to build a perfect, sterile, automated world run by flawless algorithms. The goal is to build a world where technology removes friction and unlocks the messy, unpredictable, beautiful potential of human creativity. It’s to build a world where a conversation over fried chicken can change the future, and where technology serves that conversation, rather than demanding we prove we’re human before we’re allowed to have it.
The Age of Amplification Begins
We are leaving the era of the passive user. The days of being a ghost in the machine, tracked by cookies and verified by algorithms, are numbered. The "virtuous cycle" isn't just a technical feedback loop; it's a declaration that the partnership between human and machine is about to get real. We are moving from being mere operators of tools to becoming the conductors of an orchestra of intelligence. This is the moment we stop asking the machine for permission and start telling it what we want to create, together. The great unlocking is here.