Or why we should embrace AI without sacrificing our humanity.
Convulsion. Seizure. Earth moving. How many of these terms have we seen within the first two sentences of opinion pieces trying to make sense of the societal role of Artificial Intelligence. Their hyperbole can be debated strongly from many angles. Just the fact they are being used, to me, says that AI will greatly affect the current order of society and we have the ability to channel that effect in a not-so-disruptive manor.
My thesis is this. AI is a mere tool. When wielded by a human, in a competent way, you have an unstoppable combination. Remove either, and you have effectively knee-capped the system.
AI’s main focus of disruption seems to be the technology, specifically software, industry. We see many well-known companies shedding employees, using AI advances as the blade for such cuts. I personally think many of these cuts are due to the realization that there was mass over-hiring during the pandemic. And AI is the perfect cover for what really needed to be done from a wholistic, fiscal viewpoint.
What I’m still not understanding is, why cut humans out of the loop in favor of AI, almost exclusively. Makes not one iota of sense to me. All of these systems are aiming at one endpoint. A human. These systems are not meant to provide Claude(tm) with it’s daily blood-pressure analysis. They are meant to, in best-theory, make humans lives “better”. Taking humans further and further out of the loop in their manifestation results in a circular-logic that looses the human touch, what I’d argue is the thing people want most these days.
I do understand the power of AI. And why the shiny object du-jour has such a draw. Reminds me of Vincent looking into the briefcase. The short term business impacts are obvious. Reduced employee over head equals substantial savings. But what if the real, tangible, un-clone-able piece of the equation is Human Intelligence.
HI, to me is the part that edges as some would say into the divine. The Human Experience. The thing that we know is there but have no freaking way of describing it in a scientific manor. HI is something you can not replace, try as you might. But you can enhance it. That is where AI comes in.
AI coming in, does not and should not equal replacement. It should signal a desire for the team assembled achieve great things in a time-revolutionary way. The delta-velocity on NO2.
The vast majority of my thinking comes at an angle of “do good things”. Be good to everyone in your organization. Realize that there is a business hierarchy, but use that status for good, not greed. Make money, but be fair, don’t do it at the expense of others.
Trying to balance my thinking with how the HI & AI interaction is and should be is definitely a WIP. Every day that goes by where I see mass-layoffs “due toAI” I keep looking over the horizon for the reversal of this trend. And who will be the first to back pedal a bit.