Pakistan, Aug. 24 -- Every few weeks, Artificial Intelligence seems to produce another headline. A new model. A larger investment. A faster processor. A company valued in the hundreds of billions. The conversation has become almost entirely centred on the race to build more powerful machines. I follow these developments with genuine interest. But I often find myself wondering whether we are all looking in the wrong direction.

History has a curious habit of reminding us that the inventors of transformative technologies are not always the ones who transform society. James Watt improved the steam engine. It was factories that transformed economies.

The internet was built by engineers. It was entrepreneurs, educators, governments and ordina...