Innovation often tells us more about our priorities than our capabilities. The development of AI-powered glasses that allow wearers to isolate and enhance specific sounds in noisy environments is a welcome reminder that technology, when designed with empathy, can be a genuine force for good. For individuals with hearing impairments, such tools could dramatically improve quality of life and accessibility, proof that artificial intelligence can be harnessed to expand human potential rather than diminish it.

If AI can achieve this in the realm of human sensory enhancement, it is not far-fetched to believe it could also deliver cost-effective solutions to humanity’s most urgent challenges, including the climate crisis. The technology’s ability to model complex systems, optimise resource use, and predict environmental trends could be a game-changer—if, of course, the intention is right.

The problem, however, lies in the trajectory we currently see. Much of AI’s energy is being poured into pursuits that erode creativity, destabilise social norms, and,ironically—burden the environment it could help save. The carbon footprint of large-scale AI training, the automation of exploitative misinformation, and the substitution of authentic human work with algorithmic imitation do not suggest a sector aligned with the public good.

Course correction is essential, and it is needed now—not when the damage becomes an academic case study in how not to handle transformative technology. Ethical frameworks, enforceable regulations, and a collective insistence on responsible innovation are not optional extras; they are survival tools.

AI can either be the instrument that helps humanity hear more clearly, or the noise that drowns out reason altogether. The choice is ours, but as history repeatedly shows, the window for making that choice is far shorter than we imagine.