IMAGINE IF…
AI for Humanity
Exploring how artificial intelligence could help reduce human suffering — and the infrastructure required to make that future possible.
What if AI's greatest achievement isn't artificial intelligence itself — but the reduction of human suffering?
We hear a great deal about what might go wrong with artificial intelligence. Those conversations are important. But there is another conversation we should be having as well.
What might go right?
Could AI help scientists discover new cancer treatments sooner? Could agentic AI dramatically accelerate medical research? Could it help us understand dementia and other age-related diseases? Could we substantially extend healthy human lifespan? Could AI help identify mental-health problems earlier and help human professionals intervene before someone reaches crisis point?
And what if discoveries that might otherwise have taken decades could happen considerably sooner?
Nobody can yet answer these questions with certainty. That is precisely why they are worth asking.
Why “Imagine If…?”
Much of today's discussion about artificial intelligence is necessarily speculative. Predictions of mass unemployment, uncontrollable artificial intelligence and other profound social consequences concern events that have not yet happened. Some may happen. Others may not.
IMAGINE IF… explores another set of possibilities.
It starts from a deliberately optimistic but evidence-based question: What could happen if AI succeeds?
The articles will examine emerging developments in AI, medicine, science, ageing, mental health and other fields. Where something is known, we will say so. Where something is emerging, we will explain the evidence. And where we speculate about what might become possible, we will make clear that it is speculation.
The purpose isn't to predict the future. It's to expand the conversation about it.
Why This Matters to Me
I have spent much of my working life fascinated by new ideas, emerging technologies and the process by which apparently improbable ideas become everyday reality.
My involvement as a Director of Medical AI Ltd has strengthened my interest in what artificial intelligence could eventually contribute to medicine and healthcare.
I am particularly interested in the emergence of agentic AI — systems increasingly capable of undertaking complex multi-stage tasks — and what could happen as these technologies become more deeply integrated into scientific research.
Behind the technology, however, is something much more important: people. People living with cancer and other serious diseases. Families affected by dementia. Young people experiencing mental-health difficulties. Older people who want to remain healthy and independent. Families waiting and hoping for treatments that don't yet exist.
This is why I believe the positive possibilities of AI deserve much more public discussion.
The Infrastructure Behind the Intelligence
Artificial intelligence requires extraordinary amounts of computation. Computation requires physical infrastructure. Data centres require electricity, cooling, land, water, connectivity and enormous capital investment.
As our demand for AI increases, we therefore face two challenges simultaneously: How do we accelerate the development of beneficial AI? And how do we build the infrastructure required to support it responsibly?
These questions are closely connected.
Through Shepherd Grid Assurance, my work with the O-Hx EnergiVault modular cooling system and my wider interest in responsible data-centre development, I am particularly interested in this intersection between technological progress and physical infrastructure.
If AI is going to help build a better future, we should also think carefully about how we build the infrastructure behind it.
Questions We’ll Explore
Imagine if… we could bring forward a childhood cancer cure by ten years? — What might happen if AI could dramatically compress parts of the scientific discovery process?
What if… the greatest risk of medical AI was that it didn't develop quickly enough? — We rightly discuss the risks of moving too quickly. What are the human consequences of moving too slowly?
Imagine if… 90 became the new 70? — Could AI-assisted longevity research eventually transform not simply lifespan, but healthspan?
Imagine if… AI could help someone before their mental-health crisis became an emergency? — Could AI become an additional tool supporting, rather than replacing, psychologists, counsellors, clinicians, helplines and other human services?
What if… thousands of AI scientists could work 24 hours a day? — What might agentic AI do to the speed of scientific discovery?
Imagine if… the data centre down the road helped save someone's life? — Could some of that computing power ultimately contribute to discoveries that improve or save human lives?
A Note About Speculation
IMAGINE IF… is deliberately speculative.
Science progresses through asking questions about things we do not yet know. These articles will therefore distinguish between WHAT WE KNOW (developments supported by published evidence), WHAT IS EMERGING (promising technologies and research where significant uncertainty remains), and IMAGINE IF… (clearly identified speculation about what those developments might eventually make possible).
We don't intend to confuse possibility with prediction. But neither should uncertainty prevent us from imagining what progress might achieve.
About Phil Shepherd
Phil Shepherd is a business futurist, entrepreneur and Director of Shepherd Grid Assurance Pty Ltd and Medical AI Ltd.
His interests span artificial intelligence, AI infrastructure, medical AI, visual thinking, entrepreneurship and technologies designed to enhance human capabilities.
Through Shepherd Grid Assurance, Phil represents the O-Hx EnergiVault modular Cold Thermal Energy Storage system in Australia and is particularly interested in how the rapidly growing infrastructure required for artificial intelligence can be made more efficient, resilient and responsible.
IMAGINE IF… AI for Humanity reflects his wider interest in a simple question: What if AI's greatest achievement isn't artificial intelligence — but the reduction of human suffering?
JOIN THE CONVERSATION
These articles aren't intended to provide all the answers. They're intended to ask better questions.
If you're involved in artificial intelligence, medical research, healthcare, mental health, longevity, data centres, energy, infrastructure or simply interested in what AI could mean for humanity, I'd be delighted to hear your perspective.
IMAGINE IF… AI for Humanity Shepherd Grid Assurance Pty Ltd
