The Only Truly AI-Proof Human Capability
Artificial intelligence has, if nothing else, captured our attention.
At first, it seemed innocent enough. ChatGPT sounded like a new kind of social media rather than a tool that could hack into government websites.
Since November 2022, however, the awesome potential of AI now has everyone worrying if it's going to their jobs and make us all stupid.
We're now even concerned that artificial intelligence may get better at killing humans than humans are.
Yet with almost 1,000 people dying every DAY in Ukraine, it's going to take more than a couple of upgrades to ChatGPT before it can engage in that kind of senseless violence.
So amid the breathless hype, humans are still left questioning what worth we still have.
Several candidates have emerged.
Human Connection: For some things, we'll always want to engage with a human. Maybe. But we shouldn't underestimate the ability of humans to rub each other the wrong way, especially where companies are involved. People still prefer humans to AI for customer service, but research shows most would switch to AI if it could get it's act together and solve their problem.
Judgement: AI can sift through information from obscure sources at frightening speed, but only humans can make sense of it. However, we should remember that humans are hopelessly optimistic about their own ability to make good decisions. In recruitment, for example, we're convinced an informal chat will reveal a candidate's true colours, even though it's by far the worst predictor of performance.
Critical Decisions: AI is so prone to hallucination, we'll always need a human in the loop when it comes to life-and-death situations. To this I respond that humans screw up critical decisions all the time. In the U.K. every year, almost 4,000 people die on the roads as a result of critical decisions gone wrong. In the U.S., it's almost 40,000!
Creativity: AI just regurgitates what humans have already created. Human creativity doesn't come from nowhere. It is synthesised from our experiences, in a similar way to how AI sythesises what it knows. However, I do agree that only humans can truly hallucinate. What's known in AI as hallucinating is more like dementia.
So what's left?
Imagination.
It may sound like the softest of soft skills, but imagination is the unique selling proposition humans have over artificial intelligence.
Imagination is the capacity to think about things that don't exist, and the easiest way to think about imagination is how we employ it in different timeframes.
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For the past, we need imagination to recall our memories. Your memory isn't a record of the past, but rather an interpretations of your experience, brought to life by your imagination.
That's why we forget so much, or even remember things that didn't happen. AI will produce a more faithful record of the past, but it won't include the helpful interpretation that you've given it.
For the present, we can imagine alternatives to what's happening now. We don't often do this, but I use it as a useful warm-up for futures thinking, as it's much easier to imagine alternative presents than alternative futures.
But it's for the future where our imaginations come into their own. We use our imaginations to consider possibilities, weigh up choices and think through uncertainties.
Imagines are what made The Pyramids possible, took us to the moon and, even, helped us create artificial intelligence.
From an individual perspective, what's important is that our imaginations inform our decisions, and decisions are how we take control of our futures. Because if we're not deciding what we want from the future, should we just let artificial intelligence fill that space?
No matter how beautifully AI can make my PPT, create a new protein and coordinate a murderous drone swarm, it will remain up to humans to decide what kind of world we want to create with it.
Without imagination, we can provide no instruction, and we risk leaving the most high-level decisions in the hands of machines sound like they know us better than we do. Netflix might know you're bisexual before you do, but it can't access our imaginations.
Imagination is a human superpower, unique even in the animal kingdom. Where squirrels bury nuts in autumn based on instinct, we can imagine the benefits of burying seeds in the arctic.
Yet it's a capacity we often squander. Why work on my vision to make the world a better place when I can order Dominoes and settle in for an evening watching bi comedy on Netflix?
To strengthen your imagination, you need to treat it like a muscle that needs nutrients and resistance training. The main nutrient is curiosity:
Read about topics you don't know much about. I've read books about the Israeli secret service, the Ku Klux Klan and quantum physics to avoid the lure of the algorithmic recommendation.
Talk to people you don't know, or about things you don't normally talk about. I often ask people if they weren't doing the job they had now, what would they be doing. I recently asked some investment bankers this, and I got answers ranging from fisherman to beach volleyball player.
Expose yourself to novel experiences. You might not like the sound of Christmas tree flavoured crisps, but won't know if you don't try it.
This isn't just about broadening your horizons. It's giving your mind a chance to make new connections, synthesise a more interesting range of data, and consider possibilities that those around you can't access.
Yet this muscle also needs exercise:
Create a vision for yourself, then create an alternative. The path you've laid out for yourself may make sense, but fail to light your fire. What else could you be doing in five years time?
For a current major news event, generate four ideas how it might turn out. Politics and disasters make good fodder for imaginative thinking.
Imagine the world in two years – What might be different? What might be the same?
Imagination isn't a "nice to have" skill. With automation increasing, we will be increasingly asked to apply our imaginations to thinking through what kind of future we want to create for ourselves. Now's not the time to hand over the reins to Skynet.
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