As AI investment reaches trillion-dollar levels and job displacement accelerates, are you thinking critically about the real impact of artificial intelligence on people and organisations? What have you read or heard that makes you question if we’ve reached the point of no return?
In this moment, you are likely on LinkedIn scrolling into in a deep, dark hole of #aislop (a term coined by one of my mentors, Christian Kelly). It’s okay. Me too. I find myself engrained in “research,” spending too much time on social media reading article after article about what’s happening in artificial intelligence.
The deeper I go, the more I wonder what is true and untrue. What is fact and what is biased. What is a promotion and what is real. And at what point, have we gone too far?
There are stories about the war to achieve super intelligence, and what some tech oligarchs are saying in the media versus what they are actually doing inside their companies. There are reports that the AI bubble will burst, and technology companies are manipulating financials. There seems to be endless stories about the promises of artificial intelligence, the advancements, and trillion dollar checks for the ones paving the way.
What does “the point of no return” mean for AI?
- Will it be the moment we’ve designed a super intelligence that can no longer be controlled?
- Will it be a crash of technology companies?
- Will it be when the artificial intelligence super-minds finally collapse behind empty promises?
- What about when unemployment rates rise more?
- What about when mental health declines even further?
I believe the point of no return is the day we stop critically thinking for ourselves. The day we take every word on LinkedIn and every product announcement from a tech oligarch as truth. The day we stop asking ourselves, “Just because we can do it… should we do it?”
Who is asking the right questions about artificial intelligence?
Have we already reached it? If you asked me 6 months ago, I would have said yes. I would have said that all of the corporate officers I’ve seen are ready to implement AI blindly and lay off their workforce and go home without thinking twice. But since leaving the corporate world, I have found myself amongst a group of people who believe there’s a different way.
Women in their 20’s and 30’s, demanding more influence in how artificial intelligence is designed and more agency around how they are impacted. Amazing entrepreneurs and founders setting off on their own paths to develop more ethical AI models. I’ve even met some corporate officers who are happy to quietly question if this focus on productivity and automation is really the right way (and they are getting a little bit louder).
What does responsible AI leadership look like?
I don’t think we’ve reached the point of no return just yet, but it’s coming. Which is why we need more and more leaders making decisions about artificial intelligence from a place of clarity, compassion, and courage.