AI Whiplash: Why Both Sides Are Right
Navigating the noise
Another Week of AI Whiplash
Last Tuesday a group of public figures including Steve Wozniak, Prince Harry and Steve Bannon signed an open letter calling for a slowdown in the development of AI. The timing was ironic: this push came just two weeks after fears of an AI stock market bubble peaked. Just after calling AI overhyped, critics complained it was moving too fast.
Each week, AI is a magic solution to everything or a hype-filled bubble. No wonder we’re confused! But that’s our reality with AI, both sides are right.
This week we’re digging into the paradoxes of AI, and how it can be magical and unsettling.
America’s AI Anxiety
If AI had a PR agency, it would be fired. Americans are more concerned about AI than any other country in the world, despite the leading AI companies being based in the US. They fear job loss, diminished creativity and meaningful relationships, and most feel helpless over AI’s growing role in their lives.
But there are people excited about AI, and they are the ones using it: White collar workers, urban dwellers, managers, and tech employees. Those who consider themselves AI experts are 3x more excited about its impact than average.
This level of angst is unlike anything we’ve seen before. No one was arguing for a ban on the Internet in 2000! So what’s different? Let’s dig into the paradoxes.
Paradoxes of AI at work
John is a customer account manager. He starts using a chatbot to draft customer emails, and he’s able to send twice as many per day! But over the next quarter, he starts receiving AI-written emails from others. Some are generic, miss key details or just don’t make sense. He has to spend extra time figuring out what people actually meant. Worse, when AI can’t help, he’s forgotten how to write his own compelling emails.
This is our first paradox: Workslop. Stanford research found that using AI poorly creates a cascading effect for downstream employees to decode, fact-check or rewrite AI-generated work.
Then there’s Task delegation. Employees can offload routine tasks to AI, allowing them to focus on what matters. But this productivity comes with a cost: relying too heavily on AI can lead to atrophy as humans fall out of practice.
So…does AI make us more productive? Or does it create downstream chaos and erode our skills? Yes!
Paradoxes of AI and jobs
Mary works in purchasing. Her department adopts AI to automate buying for low-risk orders. Mary masters the AI tools and her productivity soars. Six months later, Mary’s company lays off 25% of her team.
Our next paradox, working yourself out of a job, hits close to home for today’s employees. Leaders preach AI usage, telling workers “you won’t lose your job to AI, you’ll lose it to someone else using AI”. But when those efficiency gains kick in, they cut staff anyway and brag about it in earnings calls.
Then there’s Job disruption: AI will both create and eliminate jobs. Amazon is using AI to eliminate 600,000 warehouse jobs, but America faces a shortage of 1.9 million jobs to support datacenter buildouts.
So…does AI lead to productivity gains that could cost people their jobs? Will it both destroy and create new jobs? Yes!
The Paradox of AI and Education
Brent is a college English teacher who believes writing is critical to learning. He bans chatbots and holds in-class exams with blue books. But then company recruiters tell him they want to hire students with AI skills.
This is the educators’ dilemma: AI short-circuits learning when students use it to skip the hard work, but employers desperately want candidates who are AI-literate. Adding to the dilemma are AI’s other benefits like personalized tutoring, instant feedback and customized lesson plans.
So…do AI tools diminish student learning or enable more effective learning? Yes!
Paradoxes of AI and Humanity
Sally has a problem she’s uncomfortable discussing with friends. She asks a chatbot for advice, and resolves it. This was so easy that Sally starts turning to AI for more trivial matters. Over time, Sally loses connection with her friends. Meanwhile, her friend Jake is using AI to create an album cover for his band but is afraid to tell his friends because they won’t think it’s real art.
AI as a companion is a paradox: AI fulfills many needs that we normally get from people. This is valuable for people who are lonely, need help at odd hours, or face uncomfortable situations. But as people rely more on AI companions, they risk losing depth in human relationships.
Our final paradox is AI for creativity: AI provides incredible tools for writing, images and videos. These tools help people create content who otherwise wouldn’t. But as the volume of AI-assisted content surges, it becomes harder to distinguish human art from AI.
So…does AI provide us with new emotional support and creative tools or threaten what it means to be human? Yes!
Noise-Cancelling Headphones
It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the flood of contradictory voices, and they’ll only get louder. Here are four ways to deal with the noise:
Embrace the discomfort. AI stirs up a lot of emotions including awe, fascination, confusion and fear. This is natural, and you’re not the only one! Acknowledge it, and talk about it. Your friends are probably just as confused as you are.
Account for motives. When Elon Musk predicted AI will be smarter than the smartest human by 2025 🤔, it made him look visionary. When CEO Jim Farley said AI will replace half of white-collar workers, Ford’s stock went up. Consider the source.
Don’t fall for clickbait. No one clicks on headlines saying everything will be fine. That dramatic AI headline may be tempting but ask yourself: is this really worth my time and stress?
Develop a nuanced view. AI isn’t all good or all bad. You can believe that AI is magical and that we need to find ways to fund artists for their creative works. It’s okay to have both.
Every week we get another prediction that AI will save the world or destroy it. Most of these will be wrong, and that’s okay! We’re in a living, uncertain moment. So enjoy the predictions, wrestle with the paradoxes but keep your noise cancelling headphones dialed to 11.
Dad Joke: Why couldn’t the fruit farmer decide between planting D’Anjou, Bosc or Asian pears? He was caught in a Pear-adox! 🤣
Thanks for reading!
If you enjoyed this edition, share it with someone who’s asking “wait, is AI good or bad?”