If AI Is the Answer, What Was the Question?
AI is everywhere—and we’re told it’s indispensable. But when something is presented as a universal need, it demands deeper questioning. In this thought-provoking reflection, The Contemplationist asks four simple yet disruptive questions: What problem is AI solving? What need does it serve? Who had that need? And—who actually asked for it?
Backed by data (over $3 trillion in AI investment since 2020), and contrasted with global spending on medicine and defense, the piece highlights a silent truth: AI may be a solution in search of a problem—engineered more by capital and theory than by human demand.
From mass job displacement forecasts to vague promises of “efficiency,” the justification for AI feels more like marketing than meaning. This is not a rejection of technology—it’s a call to pause. To reframe progress.
Because if AI is the answer, then we must ask: What exactly was the question?