Do We Have the Right AI Message?

“Is it better for society that AI collaborates with people rather than replaces them?”

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?My last straw before writing this piece was a March 2024 Wall Street Journal Review article entitled, Drone Swarms Are About to Change the Balance of Military Power. ?Such swarms can only occur through the use of AI programming. Gone will be the need for warships, battle tanks and invading armies, since drone swarms will just eviscerate them when the time comes. Just imagine the devastating loss of human life and military equipment when this moment comes within the not too distant future. It can be achieved with relatively inexpensive drones able to deliver deadly force.

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Within a week another WSJ book review item by Verity Harding, author of AI Needs You: How We Can Change AI’s Future and Save Our Own, shared her thoughts on the five best AI books that she’s read recently. These books ranged from Automating Inequality; If then about Simulmatics Corp and its genesis with AI; Klara and the Sun a science fiction novel about AI’s creation of elite humans and post-employment communities; Race after Technology sharing coded inequality; and Artificial Technology by Melanie Mitchell (2019). This last book apparently demystifies much about AI, including its author’s view that there’s a “healthy dose of skepticism about the plausibility of a human-surpassing super intelligence.” ???????

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Then again came another article in a March New York Times Weekend Business article entitled A Tug of War Between Big Tech and the Fed by economist Jeff Sommer. He reported on the Woodstock-like AI jamboree in Silicon Valley, where a stadium full of giddy AI enthusiasts waxed about the technology’s future. He then compared it to a more somber, bi-coastal DC downer, where financial industry executives wrestled with issues like interest rates, inflation, and shrinking Fed assets to support the economy. What a contrast!

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All three articles are shared with those of you who didn’t see them as a way of encouraging you to take a balanced perspective toward AI. Like all good things, there are always countervailing factors that need weighing to get the best of both worlds. One without the other can produce a lopsided effect that could bring tremendous pain. Pain that could equate to two past horrendous world wars, a Great Depression or Recession, ?Pandemics or Planetary Conflicts; all issues that we just cannot perceive right now. We should take a sober view rather than hurtle into something we don’t fully understand…all for the sake of short term financial gain.

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The fact is that we also seem to be experiencing a world leadership crisis right now, which includes executives willing to dump their workforces in favor of AI controlled computers and machines. Such thinking adds further grist to the mill. Our current world leaders seem capable of doing reckless things. Our business communities are obsessed with numbers at the expense of cherishing their people talent. And we seem willing to vote for narcissists, who have no feelings for anyone but themselves, hence are immune to public opinion.

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?What does this mean for you? It means asking meaningful questions that are AI supportive, but also encourage AI proponents to be judicious and reflective. Remind them of that famous adage: ‘There’s no expedient that man will not go to avoid the labor of thinking.’ There’s no doubt that, if you are open to pursue a great AI opportunity, you ought to ask questions such as:

? To what extent will your AI application provide real value to society, over and above pure profit?

? To what extent is your AI application programmed to complement people rather than replace them?

? Have you factored in the hidden human intangibles that will be impacted by introducing AI?

? To what extent will you rely upon AI or human judgment?

? To what extent will your AI application paper over reality in order to accomplish unrealistic ends?

? In the event your AI application starts developing a “mind of its own,” will you be able to harness it?

? Do your AI intentions also account for the enormous people potential at your disposal?

? Is your use of AI somewhat of a “cop-out” for not knowing how to maximize your people’s contribution?

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Ultimately, we need plenty of societal education, tight AI guidelines, and enlightened leadership to adequately handle this forthcoming phenomenon! We also need a new breed of leader and message to optimize the value of AI and people-leadership.

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Author, Peter A. Arthur-Smith, Founding Principal with Leadership Solutions, Inc., is based in New York, and author of Smart Decisions: Goodbye Problems, Hello Options. He has drafted a potential new publication about enlightened leadership that offers a slew of fresh leadership concepts and practical models. Feel free to follow author at: Linkedin.com/in/peter-arthur-smith-2115722/ ?

? 2024 PAAS-LSI- All rights reserved.

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