AI Is About to Become an Extension of Your Brain. Are We Ready?

Hey everyone, and welcome to the School of Dream!

I’ve always believed that our wildest dreams are the sparks for the tech that changes the world. For the last ten years, I’ve been in the trenches of the startup world, co-founding one of Hong Kong’s biggest volunteer matching platforms and drove a bunch of other social tech projects. My whole journey has been about turning “what if” into “what is.”

Now, I’m diving headfirst into a new adventure: Generative AI (GenAI). And to kick things off, I want to share my vision for where this is all going.

Remember When Your Phone Became Part of You? AI’s Next.

Think back to 2007. The first iPhone dropped. It wasn’t an instant revolution, but fast forward a decade, and suddenly everyone had a smartphone. Today, that little slab of glass and metal feels like an extension of our bodies. We’ve got smartwatches and earbuds tracking our health and keeping us plugged in 24/7. It’s second nature.

I believe AI is on the exact same path—but it’s going to happen way, way faster and cut much deeper. This isn’t just about another app on your phone; it’s about an extension of your actual brain.

Your Brain, Supercharged

Imagine this: You’re in a meeting, and instead of frantically trying to recall a specific statistic, your AI companion just feeds it to you. It doesn’t just pull up facts; it cross-references everything you’ve ever learned and even suggests creative ideas from your personal “dream bank”—a digital space where all your random thoughts and inspirations live.

• For Memory: It’s like having a perfect, infinite notepad. It won’t just remember what you wrote, but the context, the feelings, and the connections tied to that memory. Forget forgetting things.
• For Knowledge: Need to find an obscure fact buried in a mountain of data? Your AI can sift through it in seconds. It’s like having a team of researchers in your head.
• For Dreams: It becomes your personalized coach, helping you learn faster and dream bigger, whether you’re building a new company, tackling a social problem, or just trying to grow as a person.

And this won’t be some clunky app. We’re talking seamless integration through things we wear—like AR glasses—or maybe even one day through neural interfaces like what Neuralink is pioneering.

As a startup founder, this stuff gets me fired up. My volunteer platform in Hong Kong matched thousands of people every month using pretty simple tech. Imagine what we could do with GenAI. We could predict social needs before they become crises and connect people on a global scale.

But Here’s the Scary Part: The Great Mental Divide

There’s a flip side to this dream. If we’re not careful, AI could create a chasm way wider and deeper than the “digital divide” we saw with smartphones.

The digital divide was about who had internet and who didn’t. This new divide could be mental. Existential. It would separate the world into two camps: those with AI-augmented minds and those without.

Think about a job market where AI-augmented workers are literally 10x more creative and productive. Or an education system where only the rich kids get AI tutors that adapt perfectly to their learning style. For developing countries where even a basic smartphone is a luxury, this could crush any hope of catching up. It could create a new cognitive elite and leave billions of people behind.

So, What Do We Do? Dream Responsibly.

Here at the School of Dream, my mission is to encourage people dream big with tech. That’s why we can’t let AI become a toy for the privileged. It has to be a tool that pushes all of humanity forward.

The GenAI project I currently work on is focused on building accessible tools that help young human learn better. Ideally, we need to think about:

• Open-Source Platforms: Letting anyone build AI companions that fit their own goals.
• AI Literacy: Teaching kids and adults how to use these tools ethically and effectively.
• Inclusive Design: Making sure the people building this tech come from all walks of life.

We’re standing at a crossroads. AI isn’t just about making things more efficient; it’s about amplifying the human spirit itself.

So I have to ask you: What dreams would you bring to life if you had an AI sidekick?

Drop your thoughts in the comments below. I’d love to hear what you’re thinking.

Stay tuned for the next post in this series, where we’ll get into more practical uses, tricky ethics, and how you can start dreaming with AI today.

About the author

Antony Wong, a tech enthusiast who has a lot to say, but also being an introvert at the same time.