Artificial intelligence is one of 50 things that Watson does.

In the dawn of the digital age, when the boundary between mind and machine began to blur, a leader of vision and clarity arose — Ginni Rometty, the former steward of IBM’s vast intellect. She spoke these words of balance and insight: “Artificial intelligence is one of 50 things that Watson does. There is also machine learning, text-to-speech, speech-to-text, and different analytical engines — they’re like little Lego bricks. You can put intelligence in any product or any process you have.” Thus did she unveil a truth both profound and practical: that intelligence, whether human or artificial, is not a monolith but a constellation — a collection of parts that, when joined, form something greater than themselves.

In her time, Rometty oversaw the rise of Watson, that great digital mind which triumphed over human champions in the contest of Jeopardy! Yet she saw beyond the spectacle. To her, artificial intelligence was not a god to be worshipped nor a monster to be feared, but a tool of creation, a set of elemental forces that, like Lego bricks, could be assembled by human hands into structures of meaning and progress. Each piece — machine learning, speech recognition, data analysis, and beyond — was but one fragment of a larger mosaic. The power lay not in any single element, but in the harmony of their design, guided by human purpose.

The ancients might have called such wisdom techne — the sacred art of using tools to shape destiny. When Hephaestus, the divine smith, forged his golden automatons to serve the gods of Olympus, he was not crafting mere machines; he was manifesting the first dream of intelligence woven into creation. So too, Rometty’s words echo across ages: the realization that technology is an extension of the human spirit, reflecting both our creativity and our conscience. Each algorithm, each circuit, is a mirror of our intent. Whether it becomes a healer or a destroyer depends on the heart of its maker.

Consider how this truth unfolded in our own time. When engineers wove together the strands of data, logic, and sound to create systems that could translate speech, detect disease, or predict storms, they were assembling the bricks of intelligence into forms that serve humanity. Yet when others used those same bricks to manipulate truth, divide communities, or amplify greed, they built towers of shadow instead. Thus, as in all things, the act of building is sacred — but the builder must be wise. Intelligence, whether artificial or natural, is a neutral flame; it is the intention that determines whether it warms or burns.

Rometty’s insight teaches us also of integration — that intelligence should not stand apart, aloof from the world, but flow through all its veins. Just as the human body thrives when mind, heart, and hand act in unity, so too must our creations serve the living fabric of society. The power of Watson, she reminds us, is not in its isolation but in its application — when intelligence becomes part of every product and every process, it ceases to be a novelty and becomes a force of everyday transformation. The goal is not to create one great mind, but a world that thinks together.

There is humility in her vision, for she does not exalt machines as masters but sees them as companions to human effort. Just as a carpenter’s chisel cannot carve without the craftsman’s hand, so too artificial intelligence has meaning only when directed by human wisdom. To treat it otherwise is to mistake the tool for the maker. In this, Rometty’s words are not only about technology but about all creation — that power without guidance is chaos, and progress without conscience is peril.

Let this then be the teaching passed down to the builders of the future: Do not fear the rise of intelligence, whether artificial or divine, but seek to shape it with purpose. Learn its pieces, master its principles, and assemble it in service of life, not domination. Every new discovery, every system we create, is another brick in the cathedral of human achievement. Build it well. Build it wisely. And remember — the true intelligence does not lie in the machine, nor even in the mind, but in the union between them, where human vision meets the infinite potential of creation.

Thus spoke the ancients through the voice of the modern: the measure of greatness is not what we build, but why we build it.