Foreword
Kevin Cahill CBE Life President Comic Relief
You might be wondering why Steve Bolton has asked a 73 year old, semi-retired charity worker to write the foreword to his book on AI. I thought that maybe I’m his experiment?
I was Chief Executive of Comic Relief for over twenty years. I joined the brainchild of Richard Curtis in its infancy and watched it grow from a small idea into one of the largest charitable movements in the United Kingdom. In that time, Comic Relief grew from an office of thirty people to over two hundred and raised over a billion pounds to fund work tackling extreme poverty and promoting social justice.
Working there was a rollercoaster ride. We were free to be creative and put the fun into fundraising. To a certain extent, from the outset, we made it up as we went along.
There was not a blueprint. We learnt on the job and professionalised as we grew. There were only four main broadcast channels at that time, and obviously no internet.
Getting the word out to the public involved A4 envelopes and stamps. What we lacked in experience, we made up for with passion and energy. We felt lucky to be doing what we were doing.
We enjoyed the support of some of the most generous talent in entertainment, sport, business, and the BBC, guided by the truly exceptional Richard.
Alongside the enormous challenge and fun of the fundraising, we had the onerous responsibility of spending the money raised well, in ways that would make a real difference to the lives of some of the poorest and most disadvantaged people at home in the United Kingdom and across the world. People looked forward to Red Nose Day. The public were ready for it, especially young people. Somewhere along the way, we began to quote the great anthropologist Margaret Mead.
Never doubt that a small group of people can change the world, it is the only thing that ever has.
I mention all of that as I start this short introduction because it strikes me that, just as the world was ready for Comic Relief as a force for good, it is ready now for AI's potential to be an enormous force for good. And that is where another visionary comes in, the indefatigable Steve Bolton. Along with Richard and Margaret, he holds the belief that ordinary people, given the right opportunity, can do extraordinary things.
That is the background against which I first met Steve. Not as an entrepreneur, though he is a formidable one.
Not as an investor, though he has built and backed remarkable businesses. But as someone who is committed to doing good and helping those small groups of people drive positive change.
In that quest, this book and Athena Veritas have been created. That is the reason he has chosen this technologically challenged human being to write this foreword.
I have known Steve for many years. I have watched him create, build, and invest, both in businesses and, more importantly, in people. I have watched him bring his children into the work, not as employees but as genuine co-founders.
I have seen him care for elderly parents with dementia, Alzheimer’s, and cancer, with the same discipline he brings to boardrooms. And I have watched him approach AI in his typical manner, thoughtful, committed, and human-first. He is not a technologist.
He is something more useful. He is a builder of bridges between people and possibility.
Learning AI Later in Life
As a, let us say, fledgling adopter of artificial intelligence, I can see that it is a game changer. It is moving faster, touching more of life, and arrives with more concern attached to it than anything I can recall. A great deal of that concern is understandable. Some of it is misplaced. None of it will be resolved by ignoring what is happening.
What I have learned, through Steve and his children and their patience with me, is that the concern can be eased into the background when you learn how to engage properly. I have started my own AI journey under the guidance of a seventeen-year-old named Jude, who is one of Steve's three children and a co-founder.
I am grappling with how to talk to AI rather than type at it, and how to use it to strengthen my thinking and speed up what I do rather than replace it. Learning from Jude, who is from a generation that understands this technology in their bones, has been illuminating.
It reminds me of the expression, if you are good enough, you are old enough. By the way, I am planning to swap that around, if you are old enough, you are good enough.
Through Steve and his team, I have seen the impact on others. People who were stuck are now moving. People who had written themselves out of the future are now quietly writing themselves back in.
Young people gaining clarity on their education and careers. Adults in mid-life rediscovering agency. Older users, like me, finding that they are not locked out of what comes next.
Families on a path to lifting themselves out of poverty. The outcomes really can be real. And thankfully, AI is a new technology that is not the preserve of the elite.
One important thing that I can gladly do for Steve and Athena Veritas is help them make sure their delivery of AI is used as a force for social good. My real-world experience of awarding grants, checking that they actually do what they set out to do, and learning from things that do not work, comes in handy.
Finally, back to this cracking little book. The whole philosophy of it is extremely important. Steve explains it in his own words.
He asks the question, does AI work on his terms, whether it produces better thinking, better decisions, and better outcomes for the people using it. He also wonders if the world would be better without it. This is more than a book.
It is the foundation of a movement. Comic Relief worked because it gave people a meaningful way to become part of a bigger positive agent of change. The Veritas Method® can do the same as we enter the artificial intelligence age.
It gives people an accessible and practical way to engage, a framework to follow, and a community to belong to, whatever their background, age, or starting point. You will see that it was conceived and written in true Steve Bolton style, with speed, determination, and vision.
I commend it to you and believe it will be an important step on the long and winding road to AI heaven for everyone who reads it. Approach it with an open mind. Try what it suggests. Notice what changes. And then, if it resonates, find a way to bring it to someone who needs it more than you do.
That is how contributions are made. That is how movements are built.
Kevin