THE SLOW BUT INEVITABLE DECLINE OF THE SPECIES

If we fail to change or to adapt to the new artificial general intelligence, or AGI, economy and meet the challenges facing us, we will see more jobs lost, the new jobs out of our reach, and the slow but inevitable decline of the species.

As a whole new social, economic and political world order based on artificial intelligence emerges, the importance of reinventing business strategies, corporations, communities and importantly, our schools, is critical. Sadly, most people are not sure what AI is, let alone what an application such as CHATGPT means to our future.

For the last few years, some of society’s chief concerns have been whether AI will replace humans with machines, how industry will likely use AI or what the cost will be, and whether regulation will dictate AI’S future. It’s all been a mystery to the general public. But not to those CEOS who attended the 2020 Davos World Economic Summit. They all agreed they would use AI if available, and some companies already are simply because the increase in productivity achieved by technology is too good to ignore. Think about it: Robots don’t take vacations or coffee breaks, they never get sick or protest working conditions. Not yet, anyway.

Already, and partly as a result of the COVID-19 epidemic, fields like telemedicine jumped ahead in a matter of weeks past where we thought we would be in 10 years. Robotics is also being deployed in ways like policing curfews, cleaning subways and delivering groceries. More industries are now adopting robots in factories and the service industry where jobs are easily automated.

In 2014, the Pew Research Center reported that half of the experts it

canvassed envisioned a future in which “robots and digital agents” had displaced large numbers of workers, leading to “vast increases in income inequality, masses of people who are effectively unemployable and breakdowns in the social order.”

More recently, new research and news reports have suggested AI can recognize and mimic human emotions and may surpass human intelligence. This, of course, raises the specter of human extinction.

Recently the founder and CEO of Openai, Sam Altman, and leaders of other AI labs signed an open letter begging for AI to be regulated and warning that AI was a “threat” because once we embrace AI, we will lose control as humans. As detailed in The New York Times report on the statement, they fear AI technology might one day pose an existential threat and should be considered a risk to humanity.

In a Time magazine piece, Satya Nadella, the head of Microsoft was more optimistic. He said last month that AI solutions will do our drudge work, “freeing us to do the creative tasks where humans excel.”

Not surprising.

Being creative is very much at the forefront of school curriculum reform to ensure that people have the skills needed to work in the new Ai/robotic economy. Being creative is not so easy. Even defining creativity is much debated.

Johns Hopkins University, a leader in the world of creativity, quotes one of its researchers,

Charles Limb, who in 2012 was frustrated that his area of scientific research attracted little external funding. “With some exasperation, he describes being told recently by the National Institutes of Health — as they rejected a grant application without review — that ‘creativity doesn’t fit under the mission of NIH.’”

Limb’s response? “I don’t think human society can survive without creativity. Are you really sure it doesn’t fit under your mission statement?”

Creating pathways to these new jobs will not be nearly enough. As early as 2008, the Conference Board, a New Yorkbased think tank for major corporate interests, partnering with Americans for the Arts, surveyed 155 U.S. business executives and 89 school superintendents and school leaders, and discovered that the No. 1 skill necessary for success in the workplace was “creativity.” Yet there is a huge gap between understanding this truth and putting it into meaningful practice. Not nearly enough is being done.

The key may be staying well ahead of the progress of AI/ robotics. That is what Johns Hopkins and others are saying. Unless we find a way to develop our right-brain skills to be more empathetic and intuitive, to see forests and trees and thus be more creative, we will not outpace the brain and bodies of AI with robotics that will eventually acquire those skills.

It is time to take action. Adopt some form of oversight and regulation, reform our schools to prepare for the AI revolution and nurture creativity. Failure to do so will be disastrous for our future.