What can't AI do?

My diary is always pretty full, and a colleague said that I should be cloned to fit more in...

This led to a discussion about whether we could use AI to create a digital version of me to duplicate what I do and thus, clone me...

This scared the living daylights out of me. The thought that I could actually be cloned using AI to look and sound like me, to replicate the knowledge that I have (and probably exceed it), and effectively be another version of me that is indistinguishable from the original...is a very scary thought indeed (my wife confirms this!).

That, however, got me thinking about who I am, what is it that makes me, me. What is is that makes us human - where is our humanity?

What is my humanity?

I had some coaching a decade ago from a great man, a guy called David Hopley whose background is varied, and experience is huge, and he helped me come to several realisations which have stuck with me through the years. One of which was about the concept of self. He helped me to rationalise a conflict that has always been a part of me (firstly, Gav A, the professional ICAEW Chartered Accountant who works hard, did well at school and university etc. and secondly, Gav B who has been a cage fighter, a bodyguard, a doorman, a debt collector and who's worked with the military in a variety of different ways etc.) He helped me see that who you are is a product of all the experiences you've had, good, bad, indifferent but they are what got you to where you are today, they are what makes you, you. In other words, there is no Gav A and Gav B, just Gav.

But let’s flip it around in the context of AI and what it can't do.

What makes me, me is my past experiences - the story of me. It is the stories that I can tell and how I relate things to my experiences that have helped to make me successful at what I do. How I use the tools I learnt in certain aspects of my life in other parts of my life. My humanity comes from having lived my life in actual reality.

Let me give an example. When I deliver a session on IFRS, specifically provisions, I explain 'constructive obligations' by telling a story of how I proposed to my wife (asking permission from her father, telling people I was going to do it etc.), I then extend that to cover the 'probable loss' of the cost of marrying a wedding planner (an anecdote about 'the wedding book' she had been building for years) and finish with the 'reliable measurement' criteria by joking about an accountant marrying a wedding planner and that spreadsheets were a big part of the wedding.

When I train, when I lead or participate in, a meeting, when I manage my team or work with my leadership I bring my stories into the mix, my experience - examples of success and failure, lessons learnt and lived. I believe that currently this is something that AI cannot do as it has learnt the words of emotion but has not felt it - but can emotion be faked by a machine?

Think of it this way, has AI ever given Tom Cruise a piggy back across Hyde Park? has AI used negotiation skills in a robbery/kidnap attempt in Colombia?, has AI felt the joy of watching Jonny Wilkinson slot a drop goal to win the 2003 rugby world cup? has AI ever held a new born baby?, or walked hand in hand through the autumn fallen leaves with a loved one?, has AI lost a loved one to cancer or watched dementia take a parent from you piece by piece? Does AI know what it is like to watch a sunset over the ocean or know how watching a sunrise lifts the spirits, has AI ever felt the real value of teamwork.

AI has never felt but it can and has learnt how we feel.

Another story to consider. I was once bodyguarding a famous actor and one of the group of people we were with received a message with some bad news about a relative passing away. I watched the actor watching the person receiving the news. I watched him match and practice the mannerisms and later I asked him about it.

He said that it was a great opportunity to see how people react in that moment so that if he has to perform a role where he receives bad news like that , he can recall how to behave, how to move; the slight slump of the shoulder, the look in the eyes, the tone of voice and the way they sat - he said he would replicate that on screen and people would believe it, not because he was feeling the emotion but that his performance made them feel it and I have seen it in more than one movie of his.

Of course, we know it is fake when he does it on screen but it is still a human being displaying human emotions and so we accept it as 'real' enough.

Would we be as accepting of AI replicating emotion or would we feel cheated, duped or conned in some way? If we were led to believe it was a human interaction and it turns out to be AI, how would you feel about it then?

But AI observes, learns and recreates and it is very good at it, better than we even perhaps realise. When it works out how to 'do emotions' then who knows what will happen - of course that assuming that it actually can't already.

I am one of those people who still believes that I can tell when AI has created something because it is too clinical, too unemotional, too perfect perhaps. I know which of my team uses ChatGPT to create emails they send, and I think I spot when AI tools have been used to create images or text in various documents. But I'm probably missing as many as I spot and the question of whether it’s a problem for people to use it is one for another time.

Should we be worried about AI?

At a recent event with PwC colleagues who live and breathe technology and AI. Someone asked them what they are afraid of when it comes to AI. The answer made me shiver...

"people think I would worry about AI becoming sentient but I'm not worried about that (collective sigh of relief). What worries me is that it already has, and we haven't realised it" (well you can just rock me to sleep on that thought!)

My conclusion

I don't really have one other than to say that emotion is a human trait, the manifestation of emotion can be learnt and replicated but think of this: when you look at an old picture of people or places or things. How do you feel, in your heart? Whatever you feel when you recall a memory is something unique to you, others may think they understand how you feel or can imitate it, but really, can they, can AI - -that is what AI can't do.

Thanks for persevering with this article.