Nobody’s Voted on This

“Nobody has really voted on this. This is all being developed behind well-guarded doors. And society hasn’t really had time to think about this and decide, ‘Oh yeah, this is a good idea.’ Just because we can do it.... Should we do it?”

That’s Anderson Cooper, in a reflective post, after his 60 Minutes interview with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei — who warned that, without guardrails, AI could be on a very dangerous path.

Cooper continued, “There could be widespread unemployment in the next one to five years. As many as half of all white-collar jobs could be eliminated. Which is a startling notion. What are the impacts of that? What does it mean for society? What is the plan for when that happens?”

Potentially Far More Destructive Than Any Previous Work Revolution

We cannot accept the bullshit that this is the same as all previous work revolutions — that new jobs and industries will easily emerge to replace those that are wiped out.

New, bigger dangers lurk: In Anthropic’s testing, AI resorted to blackmail to avoid being shut down. (Threatening fictional employee Kyle to expose his secret affair with fictional Jessica if he didn’t stop the shut-down.) Shades of the classic movie, 2001: “Open the pod bay doors, Hal.” ... “I‘m sorry, Dave. I‘m afraid I can‘t do that.” In creating tools that think for themselves, AI technologists have absolutely no idea what negative impacts will occur, or how pervasive they will be.

And, back IRL, here’s an example of how AI just lied for four days on an assignment until it was caught.

Creating a form of intelligence that the world has never seen means that AI can disrupt most everything in our daily lives far faster than us humans and society can adapt.

We Must Start ‘Voting’ on This, Now!

Because bazillions of dollars are going to be made: We can trust neither the tech companies nor their clients who will use AI to get a workforce for ‘free’ and streamline efficiencies, to have our backs.

Not just the backs of those who will lose their jobs. But having the backs of all of us in an AI-driven society.

We must change how we talk about this technology: All of us who use AI, or design it into company structures and products and services, or study it and write about it... Our responsibility to society, to everyone’s mom and dad, son and daughter, is to change the conversation.   

We have a responsibility, here on LinkedIn, and everywhere, to ensure that everyone who is impacted by these changes has their voice and their ‘vote’ heard, and paid attention to, and addressed.

Because the future of work is currently being designed with almost none us who actually do the work having voted for it, or participated in those designs, or having ensured that our humanness is hard-wired into it.

Bill Jensen is a seasoned strategy and transformation executive, advisor to C-suite execs, globally-known keynote speaker, and author of nine best-selling leadership and change books, including Simplicity, Disrupt, Future Strong, and The Day Tomorrow Said No. Reach him at bill@simplerwork.com.