I just posted a poll on LinkedIn asking whether you support AI and it’s full steam ahead for you or whether you have concerns and would rather we paused for a while to get some ducks in order. Maybe regulation, maybe ownership, maybe a vote in how, when and where AI is implemented.
But while I wait for that to garner results, I have thoughts.
I am in the “we should pause” camp personally. AI is awesome and has some tremendous potential for good in many, many areas of experience. But there are aspects to AI which worry me deeply.
Chief amongst those worries is this: there seems to be a growing competition between AI and humans and I believe it is inevitable that AI will come out on top eventually.
But I believe there are alternatives. AI is becoming a life-form in it’s own right and will – for better or worse – likely continue to be evolved by engineers and developers until it is able to evolve for itself. Scary thought right there.
But what about humans? What if we don’t compete, but be content to be separate and different and potentially divergent, rather than convergent.
I believe we humans need to be developing ourselves as much as we are the technology. We have gifts and characteristics that AI and technology does not have – like feelings, a soul, intuition … Instead of comparing ourselves to AI and feeling like we are threatened, we could be tuning in to what makes humans human and growing our consciousness and inner world because that is what makes us truly unique as creatures on this planet.
Personally, this is the road I have been travelling for a decade already. I worked in IT and I a serial business owner so I function effectively in the modern world.
But I also want to function effectively as a person, as a human, as a man.
To that end, I work on my attention, focus and concentration. I learn about my intuition, my inner wisdom and my spiritual aspects too. I learn what makes those special, what makes them work, what hinders them too. I practice, I grow techniques and habits within and around myself to be more open to the magic that happens when I look inwards and listen.
When I listen, miracles happen. I discover things that I would never have known. Ideas come to me that – frankly – I would never have thought of in a million years.
When I coach my clients, I “hear” from them things they don’t realise they are thinking or feeling or ignoring. I have no idea HOW this works, I simply know that it DOES work. And my ability to do this has grown as I have delved into the inside. And I know it will grow further.
So AI is one thing and perhaps challenges my intellect, my memory, my cognition, my ability to link facts and ideas. Certainly AI can create 20 post titles a darn sight quicker than I can!
But that isn’t what makes me human, I don’t believe. What makes me human is my ability to feel, to love, to intuit, to sense another, to share with and be with people. To experience the … magic and awesomeness … of people gathering together in one space and merging and melding into a gorgeous community. Somehow.
So how about we put more effort into learning what it means to be human.
How about we learn to be more complete humans.
How about we grow, develop, learn about ourselves and get better at this humaning thing?
Just saying …
