Tools and Consequences

Everybody’s on about AI, so I may as well jump on the bandwagon. Can’t scroll more than two seconds, anywhere, without somebody shouting about how it’s going to change the world, kill creativity, steal jobs, save lives, kill us all, and do my taxes.

AI is a tool. That’s all. Do I use it? Hell yes. Just like I use a spreadsheet or a wrench. If something helps me do a thing faster or better, why wouldn’t I use it?

Consider a paintbrush. Give it to someone with skill, and they’ll create a landscape that makes you stop and stare. Hand me the same brush and you’ll get a smear of color that gives “hotel room under black light” energy.

Okay, that’s not entirely fair. I can make happy little clouds and some terrible Bob Ross trees. But that’s another post.

AI is the brush. Some people are doing genuinely impressive things with it. Open up ChatGPT’s Sora if you want to see some truly mindbending stuff. People - real humans - are bringing amazing ideas to life with the help of a tool.

Then there are the people who treat AI like a replacement for thinking. These are the same people who post on Reddit with questions like, “How many minutes are in an hour?” Dude. Laziness is not a product of AI any more than it was a product of Reddit. That’s just people being people.

Does AI write my posts? No. It helps. I have it look for confusing statements and check my grammar. Writing on its own, though? AI loves cliches and corporate speak. It wants to “utilize” everything and its prose is mostly written like a poignant speech in a daytime soap opera. If you ever hear a presentation that comes across like a TV dad giving a speech at the end of a “very special episode” that’s very likely AI.

AI will get better. People will get lazier. We’ll adapt. If we survive as a species, some new tech will come along - robotic assistants, for instance. We’ll hear about how those will change the world, kill creativity, steal jobs, save lives, kill us all, and do our taxes. We’ll adapt again. This is the way.

So how does this rant relate to leadership? The world is changing and it will never be the same. So lead the change. If your org doesn’t have an AI policy, get moving. If you think people aren’t using AI, already, you’re dead wrong. And it should scare the hell out of you because you have no idea what they’re putting out there.

Start the conversation. Decide what’s okay and what’s not. Treat AI the same way you’d treat any powerful tool and teach people to use it responsibly. That may mean you need to learn more about it and try it out, yourself. Such is life. But don’t pretend it isn’t there just because it makes you nervous.

Denial of emerging technology shows up time and time again in history as the worst possible leadership strategy. Ask Blockbuster about streaming services. Ask Kodak about digital photography. Hell, ask Socrates about WRITING!

You don’t have to be an expert and you don’t even have to like it. But you do have to engage with reality. Good leadership isn’t about having all the answers. It’s a willingness to find the answers.

Pick up the brush.