The greatest startup in history: What we can learn from America’s founders at today’s AI frontier

Two hundred and fifty years ago, a group of founders gathered in Philadelphia with quill pens, ink, and parchment to draft what would become one of the most durable governance frameworks in modern history: the U.S. Constitution. The framers couldn’t have foreseen the technological revolutions that would follow, from global electrification to the internet and artificial intelligence.

Yet they managed to create a system resilient enough to endure revolutions, technological upheaval, and centuries of reinvention.

It may be the greatest startup story ever told.

What made it so extraordinary was its ambition and the architecture behind it. Many of the founders recognized something that remains deeply relevant today: durable systems require both stability and the capacity for adaptation. The British system concentrated ultimate authority in Parliament and the Crown. The American experiment blazed a new path, and with great risk. It sought to distribute authority across competing institutions, creating a durable, adaptable framework that could withstand the many tests of its time.

At the edge of an uncertain frontier, the founders organized people, knowledge, and governance in a way that could survive the unknown.

Navigating the AI Frontier

Today, we stand at another frontier: the age of AI.

While the challenges are different, the underlying questions are surprisingly familiar. Business leaders, policymakers, researchers, and educators are confronting questions as consequential as those faced 250 years ago. How should power be distributed? How do we preserve trust? How do we ensure innovation benefits many people rather than a privileged few?

The framing of our Constitution does not provide exact answers for the AI era. But it does offer a blueprint.

The Habit of Deliberate Self-Disruption

The American story has always been defined by a willingness to challenge the status quo and invent something better. The framers recognized that durable institutions require a way to adapt over time. Article V provided a formal mechanism for constitutional change without abandoning a broader framework.

That spirit of reinvention is one of the forces that transformed a young nation into a global leader in science, business, and technology.

It’s also what has allowed many enduring American companies to rise and thrive through multiple waves of change. By treating their foundational blueprints as living documents, and embedding adaptability into their core “constitutional” values and operating practices, they empowered teams closest to the customer to challenge the status quo — preventing organizational inertia from slowing the pace of reinvention. I’m proud that Intuit is a company that has done exactly that for 40+ years, disrupting ourselves to lead through multiple technology eras — from DOS disks to the web, mobile, cloud, and now in AI.

Yet, for the broader business ecosystem, such adaptability is only half the equation. The sheer scale and complexity of the AI frontier demands that we look beyond the walls of any single organization, pairing corporate agility with cross-sector collaboration.

A “Barn Raising” Mentality for the AI Era

One of my favorite examples is the old tradition of barn raising in rural America. When a family needed a barn, neighbors would gather to build it together. They helped not because they expected immediate compensation, but because they understood collective strength created shared prosperity.

That mindset matters now.

It translates to a collaborative ethos rooted across companies, academia, government, and everyday people to ensure AI is built safely, ethically, and inclusively. To do this, we must establish standards for AI safety, invest in public-private partnerships that democratize access to AI education, and ensure that training data, evaluation frameworks, and deployment practices reflect the diversity of the people these systems serve.

While the Constitution cannot dictate how to regulate new technologies, it does define the rights of individuals, the powers of the state, and how those two elements interact. We need a governance framework for AI guided by similar principles, one that protects the individual while fostering collective innovation.

A Rising Sun on the Digital Frontier

When George Washington presided over the signing of the Constitution, seated in a chair that featured a carved sun on its back, it prompted Benjamin Franklin to ponder whether it was a “rising” or “setting” sun. By the end, he concluded it was rising.

In the same way that Franklin couldn’t have envisioned a world of silicon and software, it’s impossible to know what the future will hold. However, one lasting lesson from our founding document is that durable systems require both stability and adaptability.

As the world grapples with the AI era, we should remain grounded in the principles that helped shape the American experiment: a belief that progress is most durable when it expands opportunity and extends the benefits of prosperity.

If we get that right, the digital foundations we lay today will still be powering prosperity for generations to come.

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This story was originally featured on Fortune.com