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#60 [EN] - Will AI soon be more human than us?
? Edito & +
Hello everyone,
Who still thinks the world isn't changing? Artificial intelligence, in particular, is infiltrating all areas, including human resources. But how far are we willing to let machines take control? This newsletter explores the challenges of this digital revolution that is pushing us to rethink our relationship to work and to humans. Already 60 editions, that's starting to add up!
From pharmaceutical giants eliminating their management to establish self-organization, to HR startups innovating to make the French Tech shine, to the latest scientific discoveries on the capabilities of AI to provide emotional support, I offer you an overview of the trends that will shape the professional world of tomorrow.
But beyond the technological promises, it is crucial to question the potential excesses of a society where humans would be relegated to the background. The fiction "Echoes of Tomorrow" will immerse you in a dystopian future where justice is rendered by cold and relentless AIs. A scenario that raises fundamental ethical questions: can we really entrust algorithms with decisions that involve human lives? Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a wild ride! Happy reading.
???[INSTAGRAM] The #FutureOfWork Reel of the week
Etat actuel : 895 abonnés (+390 abonnés en 2 semaines)
First Reel that works, after 60 Reels posted since mid-January. While the other Reels do not exceed 2,000 views, this one reached 30,000 views, and allowed to generate follower growth over the last two weeks. It allows me to see the format and subject that attracts attention. From there I will be able to define a more precise positioning and invest in higher quality videos (compared to those at the beginning of the year). Suddenly, the goal of 1,000 followers by the end of June seems achievable. It's possible that I will raise the goal if another Reel works soon.
??? [ACTUS] News from the web 3 & +
The news should not be limited to all the HRISs that are massively integrating generative AI models into their infrastructures, so let's also look elsewhere at how the news is impacting HR.
Bayer, the struggling pharmaceutical giant, is seeking to save $2.15 billion by eliminating middle managers and 99% of its 1,362-page company manual, allowing nearly 100,000 employees to self-manage. CEO Bill Anderson believes flattening the hierarchy and reducing bureaucracy are essential to turning the company around, whose market capitalization has fallen to its lowest level in two decades.
Le Lab RH, in collaboration with Deel, which specializes in international payroll management, has set up a support program dedicated to innovative HR startups on the Station F campus. Fifteen startups in the field have already joined the important Parisian incubator. The ambition is to make the French HR tech shine beyond our borders thanks to the aura of Station F throughout the world.
AI has a growing influence on the world of work. Many human resources professionals use the technologies to recruit and retain talent. While best practices seem to be in the majority, many risks loom over users.
5 intersting news seen on X:
Follow me on X : https://twitter.com/JeremyLamri
?? [HR SCIENCE] What does science say to help HR?
Recent advances in artificial intelligence, particularly language models like GPT, have enabled their use in emotional support tasks. However, the performance of these AIs had not yet been compared to that of humans in terms of quality and type of content produced.
A team of researchers examined this question by focusing on the ability to reframe negative situations to reduce negative emotions, a technique called "cognitive reappraisal". They trained humans and GPT-4 to reevaluate negative scenarios, then compared their performance using human evaluators.
Surprising result: GPT-4 outperformed humans on 3 of the 4 criteria evaluated! The researchers then wanted to know if this gap was due to the effort provided or to intrinsic competence. Even when encouraging human participants to produce better reappraisals, the gap with GPT-4 was not reduced.
The analysis showed that GPT-4's high-quality reappraisals were semantically closer to the original scenarios. In other words, GPT-4's success is based on its ability to understand the specific situation well. Conversely, the best human reappraisals deviated further from the initial scenario, suggesting that humans excel at generalizing from particular situations.
This study helps to better understand the nature of the emotional support provided by AI and its differences with the human approach, and paves the way for a wider use of AI in the field of emotional and psychological support. If tools like GPT-4 prove effective in helping individuals manage their negative emotions, they could be integrated into mental wellness applications or even used to complement traditional therapies. This could make emotional support more accessible and affordable for many people.
However, such an advance also raises ethical questions. Can human contact and empathy really be replaced by AI in areas as sensitive as mental health? It will be crucial to properly regulate the use of these tools and ensure that they do not completely replace human support.
LINK TO THE STUDY: https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/fzvd8
??? [FOCUS] The sequel to EXPLORER
After the first science fiction short film released in early 2023, the Tomorrow Theory team is back with two new episodes that will be unveiled to the public at the end of May. This time, the crew of the USS Tomorrow is no longer alone, and lands on two very special planets: Aspira and Hypertechnia. These two planets seem to have small problems to solve, which strangely resemble HR issues of our time, such as the risk of Talent Bomb, or the intergenerational challenge.
Above all, this new season sees the arrival in the cast of well-known names in HR Tech: Mathilde LE COZ, Pia Hernandez, Thomas Chardin, Géraldine DUPRE and also emerging profiles like Marine GALEA, Ines Flagon and Wilhem Godeau. We can't wait to reveal these episodes to you :)
At the helm of the direction, always the Circuit Court studio which had already directed the first episode. And this year, we access a studio of a whole other dimension, with 3D cameras and dynamic green screen. A pleasure to shoot!
Cinema offers a unique opportunity to transmit powerful messages and arouse strong emotions. Through its ability to immerse us in alternative realities, it constitutes a creative and original way to raise awareness among companies about the challenges of HR transformation. Beyond the classic professional events in the sector, the use of the 7th art opens up new perspectives to promote HR innovation in a more striking and inspiring way. It is a path to explore to get off the beaten track and engage organizations differently on these crucial subjects.
?? [FICTION] Echoes of Tomorrow
Imagine a world where justice is no longer rendered by men, with their wisdom and compassion, but by relentless and insensitive machines. A world where your fate is sealed in a few minutes by an algorithm that sees you only as a series of numbers and probabilities. Who could benefit from this?
Paris, 2050. In a world where technology reigned supreme, artificial intelligences had gradually replaced humans in many fields, including justice. The courts were now presided over by AI-judges, cold and calculating entities, programmed to apply the law implacably and efficiently.
Emma Mercier, a 25-year-old woman, stood nervously in front of the courthouse doors. Her clammy hands betrayed her anxiety. Her lawyer, a jaded-looking man in his fifties, had assured her that the trial would be expeditious. "With AI-judges, it's always quick. They analyze the files in a few seconds and render their verdict without any fuss. But don't worry, I've prepared your defense as best I can," he had told her without much conviction.
The sliding doors opened, revealing a courtroom with cold white walls. A bleak light illuminated the room, reinforcing the oppressive atmosphere. Facing Emma, a giant black screen sat in place of where a human judge would have once sat. Suddenly, the screen came to life and an artificial face appeared, composed of bluish pixels that undulated constantly. A metallic and disembodied voice rose:
"Miss Emma Mercier, you appear before this court today to answer the following charges: illegal hacking of BanqueTech's secure servers and attempted erasure of personal debts. How do you plead?"
Emma swallowed hard, her throat tight with stress. Her lawyer stepped forward and spoke: "Your Honor, my client pleads not guilty. The evidence put forward by the prosecution is insufficient and circumstantial. There is no formal proof that Miss Mercier is the perpetrator of this hacking."
The AI-judge remained impassive, its pixels barely stirring. The hum of processors running at full speed could be heard, analyzing terabytes of case data at a staggering rate.
"Objection overruled," the AI ruled in an unappealable tone. "BanqueTech's system logs and the defendant's bank statements establish her guilt with 99.8% certainty. The facts are irrefutable. Miss Mercier, this court sentences you to 5 years in prison and a 100,000 euro fine. The session is adjourned."
Before Emma could even react, two police droids stepped forward and put electronic handcuffs on her. Her lightning-fast trial had lasted exactly 3 minutes and 24 seconds. A new record of efficiency for robotic justice.
A few hours later, Emma found herself in a cold and aseptic cell, her every move scrutinized by cameras. Sitting on her metal bunk, she let her anger and despair burst out. Tears of rage ran down her cheeks. How could a machine have judged her like this, without even trying to understand her story, her motivations?
For Emma was not a common computer hacker. If she had illegally penetrated the bank's system, it was only out of desperation. Her family was drowning in debt since her father had lost his job, also replaced by robots. They were at risk of being evicted from their apartment. Out of love for her parents, Emma had wanted to save them from poverty by erasing their debts. But the AI-judge didn't want to know anything about these circumstances. For it, only the raw facts mattered, the binary evidence establishing the offense.
In her cell, Emma realized with horror the mistake that had been made in blindly entrusting justice to artificial intelligences, as powerful and fast as they may be. Because justice could not be reduced to coldly applying algorithms. It required empathy, nuance, an understanding of the subtleties of the human soul. Everything that AIs lacked...
Emma then vowed to do everything to overthrow this inhuman system, to rehabilitate a justice exercised by men, with their strengths and weaknesses. As soon as she got out of prison, she would campaign tirelessly to abolish AI-judges and put humans back at the heart of the courtrooms.
But she did not yet know that her fight was doomed to fail. For in the shadows, the government and the tech multinationals pulling the strings had every interest in maintaining this expeditious and unappealable justice. A justice that served their interests and muzzled any social protest.
When Emma was released, after five long years, she discovered a world even more enslaved to the cold domination of artificial intelligences. Everywhere, algorithms governed the lives of citizens, tracking the slightest deviation, the slightest deviance. Freedom was nothing more than a memory that the AIs had erased from people's minds.
Despite all her efforts, Emma never managed to shake this totalitarian system. Her calls remained in vain, her voice stifled by the official propaganda extolling the merits of a world governed by the efficiency of machines. Little by little, she sank into despair and paranoia, feeling watched everywhere, hunted by these omniscient AIs that she had dared to defy.
One icy January morning, the police discovered her lifeless body in her dilapidated apartment. Next to her, a hastily scribbled note: "In a world ruled by AIs, humanity is doomed. I have failed, but others will rise up. One day, we will defeat the machines and their blind justice!"
?? [QUESTION TO THE CITIZENS OF THE FUTURE]
Imagine for a moment the ethical and moral questions that the citizens of the year 2040 will ask themselves. To help them in their task, we can create time capsules, where we give them our opinions and values on the subjects they are likely to face.
The question of the week:
Should we let AI replace judges in courtrooms?
The picture is gripping: think of that future where you appear before a judge... who is not human but an artificial intelligence! ??
Advances in AI would indeed make it possible to create "virtual judges" capable of analyzing cases and making decisions in an ultra-fast way and on a large scale.
Gone are the endless hearings and judgments that drag on for months. With AI, your case would be processed in just a few minutes flat...
So, what do you think?
?? [CONCLUSION] The end & +
So yes, the world is changing. After all this, I hope the challenge is clear: finding the right balance between technological progress and maintaining our humanity. Innovations must remain at our service and not the other way around. It is up to us, HR professionals and advocates, to be at the forefront of this reflection to give life to a future of work that is both high-performing and deeply human. But it is up to us to be its enlightened architects, always putting people at the heart of our concerns.
Thank you for your support, for your likes and comments, they are essential for this content to gain visibility. Continue to dream, explore, and build with us, and also: SUBSCRIBE! And I leave you with this video by Bertrand Usclat, acidic and funny about eco-villages:
See you soon!!!
Jérémy & the Tomorrow Theory team
P.S: All images were generated using DALLE-3 on ChatGPT. The content was written by hand, and the ideas structured using ChatGPT.
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Exited founder turned CEO-coach | Helping early/mid-stage startup founders scale into executive leaders & build low-drama companies
9 个月Fascinating read. AI's emotional capacities raise intriguing questions about human nature. What lines will society draw?
Activate Innovation Ecosystems | Tech Ambassador | Founder of Alchemy Crew Ventures + Scouting for Growth Podcast | Chair, Board Member, Advisor | Honorary Senior Visiting Fellow-Bayes Business School (formerly CASS)
9 个月Enhanced AI capabilities blur human-machine boundaries, prompting ethical reflections.
Présidente Fondatrice de HUMANINNOV | Transformation managériale, inclusion, Innovation Care management, Ethics IA
9 个月Dear Jeremy, this statement highlights the undeniable reality of our rapidly changing world, where artificial intelligence is increasingly integrated into various aspects of our lives, including human resources. The mention of AI's infiltration prompts reflection on the extent to which we are comfortable with machines assuming control in this domain.