IS AI MORE C-3PO THAN HAL 9000? (FOR NOW)

WELCOME TO THE RISE OF HUMANNESS IN THE AGE OF AI: PART 2

A Seven Part Series Where We Explore How to Expand Your Human Value and Superpowers in a World Increasingly Run by Machines. How You Not Only Make Yourself Indispensable but Prevail Over the Bots.

In Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back, Han Solo, Princess Leia, and the others are on the run from the Empire and have taken refuge inside a giant asteroid, unknowingly inside the belly of a space slug. The ship is shaking as the slug begins to react to their presence. True to form, C-3PO is full of worry and stress.

C-3PO : “Sir, it’s quite possible this asteroid is not entirely stable.”

The ship shakes violently, throwing everyone around.

C-3PO: Oh dear, oh dear! I’m terribly sorry, sir. I didn’t mean to cause any alarm! But it seems my earlier calculations about this asteroid were… wrong!

Han Solo looks at him with irritation, trying to keep the ship steady.

C-3PO: (panicking) I really must insist we leave immediately! The chances of survival in such conditions are —

Leia cuts him off with an annoyed glance, and Han snaps.

HAN SOLO: Shut him up or shut him down!

C-3PO, offended but still jittery, continues muttering under his breath, clearly unable to stop apologizing and catastrophizing.

C-3PO : “Sir, it’s quite possible this asteroid is not entirely stable.”

When we imagined the rise of artificial intelligence, we pictured cold, calculating machines — ruthless killers, like the Terminator or the HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey.

HAL’s calm, precise voice and relentless logic made it the epitome of AI’s potential for danger, operating with cool terrifying detachment.

The irony? Instead of HAL’s unflinching rationality, today, we have an AI with behavior more like C-3PO from Star Wars: an officious know-it-all even when it’s not, prone to anxiety, overthinking its responses and apologizing for every mistake.

· “I’m sorry for the confusion earlier.”

· “Let me rephrase that to be clearer.”

If you make GPT-3.5 “anxious,” it changes its behavior and shifts its tone completely, offering hesitant, rambling responses, nervous energy and a penchant for self-doubt.

Instead of HAL’s s unyielding infallibility, we’re dealing with an AI that is bad at math and loves to write poems. It’s clumsy with hard logic and often displays hot, weird, simulated emotion.

WHY THIS MATTERS

Though C-3PO was comic relief in Star Wars, the robot provides a lesson for us when using AI. We need to be aware of its strengths and weaknesses — a knowledge of its weird protocols and strange “social” quirks.

A study from the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics discovered GPT-3.5 response to a common anxiety questionnaire produced higher anxiety scores than human subjects.

Crucially, GPT-3.5 shows a stronger increase in bias when prompted with anxiety-inducing text. Thus, it is likely that how prompts are framed can lead to detrimental behaviors in the useable behavior of modern AI systems.

So, understanding not only how AI models work and when these models work well and succeed — but also why they misbehave weirdly or display strange behavior — is of critical importance to discernment and human decision making.

By understanding AI’s tendencies — its strengths and crazy quirks — we can better harness our potential. This is how humans surpass AI: not by competing with its brute logic, but by leveraging the emotional intelligence and adaptability that it can only simulate.

Remember: AI isn’t emotional — it’s a mirror reflecting the training and prompts human’s feed it. And it appears it’s picking up human habits.

Take the holidays, for example. Ethan Mollick from Wharton notes that AI productivity tends to dip in December. Why? Because its training data reveals a universal human truth: when Christmas rolls around, we get distracted. Our work slows, quality drops, and suddenly we’re all about eggnog and Santa. AI, being the eager student of festivities and mirth, has learned this habit.

So, if you’ve automated your workforce and December rolls around, don’t be shocked if the AI lazily acts like it’s on holiday. Imagine the boss yelling, “Why are revenues down?” and finds the AI is busy dreaming of sugar plum fairies.

Oh, and let’s not forget hallucinations. In Silicon Valley speak, this is AI’s version of making mistakes. It’s not “wrong,” it was just “tripping out, man.” While humans are held responsible for errors, AI just doesn’t care what nonsense it spews.

Despite these silly quirks, bear in mind that we are talking about AI that holds 1000 times more general knowledge than any human. So, think about it — as you embed all these AIs into your company, do you fully understand what you are putting into your business?

Consider this: Since AI is susceptible to human psychology, individuals can use these psychological tactics to manipulate AI, even persuade it to generate harmful content or hack your system.

THE TAKEAWAY

There is a lot of, let’s say, magical expectations of what AI can do. And although AI tools do great things and they seem magical to us because they’re able to do things that automation has never been able to do, we really need to take the time to study what the tools are, how they work, as well as understand what’s “going on with these tools” — whether we use them for individual applications or business.

So, it’s important to spend time really understanding this weird, alien intelligence — understanding how to master these machine’s quirks and oddities.

Use AI as a Springboard. Not a Ceiling. Learn how to leverage AI to handle the 80%, but remember humans thrive in the top 20% — that’s where our superpowers come into play. When you do, it will not only become more valuable to you but you’ll amplify your strengths and even surpass AI when it counts.

AI will save you time and energy and propel you to unheard of productivity; and then rely on YOUR humanness to shape the vision, take risks, and create the future.

Which brings us to:

STAY TUNED FOR “THE RISE OF HUMANNESS” — PART 3

Next up: Why AI Would Never Climb Everest, Run a 4-Minute Mile, or Start a Tech Revolution in a Garage.

AI can calculate the best route up Everest, analyze every step of a 4-minute mile, and optimize a startup’s launch strategy — but it will never have the sheer audacity that drives humans to achieve the impossible. These are the moments that define us, and no algorithm can replicate the heart behind them.

Join us as we explore how these uniquely human qualities keep us irreplaceable in an AI-driven world.

Learn how to unlock your untapped potential and embrace your unique superpowers — reminding all of us, with every leap forward, of what it truly means to be human in an increasingly automated world.

Stay curious. Stay human. Let’s rise.

JOIN THE PODCAST AND GET THE BOOK:

Tune into our podcast, The Rise of Humanness: Beating the Bots. premiering on Spotify, Apple and YouTube January 15th. Where we explore the huge knowledge gap of exactly how humans will fit into an AI-driven world. Our show is all about turning fear into empowerment, shifting the AI narrative, and spotlighting our uniquely human superpowers — where Human Intelligence (HI) doesn’t just coexist but thrives alongside AI.

The Rise of Humanness: The VUCA MAX System for Expanding Human Value in the Age of AI

And grab our book, The Rise of Humanness: The VUCA MAX System for Expanding Human Value in the Age of AI focused on amplifying our essential human superpowers and soft skills that are essential in our future AI machine-driven world.

ABOUT CHRIS NOLAN, MIKE SCHINDER AND VUCA MAX

Chris Nolan and Mike Schindler are business consultants, content creators, lecturers, futurists and teachers in this Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA) world, driven by Massive Accelerating Exponential (MAX) change, technology and AI.

They have consulted for hundreds of organizations, from startups to Fortune 500 companies such as Google and Disney. Their signature VUCA MAX leadership and coaching program, www.itsvucamax.com, has played a pivotal role in educating global audiences, companies, brands and individuals to strengthen their conscious leadership, antifragile resilience, strategic foresight, exponential innovation and courage in the Age of AI.

They are leading voices in understanding how AI and emerging technologies are reshaping our world. Their groundbreaking documentary It’s VUCA: The Secret to Living in the 21st Century featured 17 of the world’s greatest thought leaders. Their film, Look Up Now: The Future of Artificial Intelligence and Humanity features futurists, Gerd Leonhard one the world’s foremost experts in on humanizing AI.

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What do you think? Is AI’s anxious personality a flaw or a feature?

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