A version of this story appeared in Total Annarchy, my fortnightly newsletter that helps you be a better writer, storyteller, marketer. Get it in your inbox; you’ll love it.
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Above is from the most recent issue of the Economist.
And here’s an actual tweet I stumbled upon last week:
“AI is going to nuke the bottom third of performers in jobs done on computers — even creative ones — in the next 24 months.”
The tweet goes on: Salaries will plummet. Organizations will get drastically smaller. “Old, slow” people will be replaced by “half-priced young folks.” (A characterization that manages to insult both ends of the workforce at once.)
…Prepare “immediately”!
…Invest in your abilities “massively”!
…And don’t forget the “nuke” part!
Disaster upon disaster. A mushroom cloud rising out of a volcano powered by a tsunami of fireballs that are infected with Covid-19.
RUN!
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There was some sound advice in the original Twitter thread. Like “you’re [sic] ability to be nimble and learn new skills is all that matters.”
But it was wrapped in so much hysterical hyperbole that you had to shovel out bucket after bucket of roiling hysteria to find it.
OK I’m exaggerating for fun. I’m hyperbole-ing the hyperbole. But just a bit.
It earned 3,740 Likes. 1,194 Retweets. And at least one LinkedIn post, which is where I saw it. (Hi, Paul.)
Lots of chatter around a fundamental question:
😈 AI is the devil that will undermine our credibility, steal all our jobs, and leave us penniless and destitute living in cold-water walk-ups; or
😇 AI is a sweet gift sent from the angels that will help us be more productive and creative and allow us to retire to our yachts in the Mediterranean Sea, wearing deck shoes made of dollars bills.
If that sounds familiar it’s because I’ve written about this before… and I guess the Economist’s editors are on my list.
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Angel? Devil? Good? Bad?
Asking if AI writing tools are good or bad is like asking if the Gutenberg press is good or bad.
Asking if the internet itself is good or bad.
Or asking if TV remotes are good or bad for legs that get less of a workout running back and forth from the couch to flip between Ted Lasso and Succession. (<– The two best-written shows right now; I will die on this hill.)
AI is both.
AI is neither.
It’s just here.
It just IS.
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Nuanced thinking on the internet (or anywhere) does not get the same attention as categorical, black-and-white certainty. Our brains crave the drama—the exaggerated cues researchers call supernormal stimuli.
And maybe the nuke/no-nuke framing is effective for that reason alone?
Because it raises consciousness faster and more dramatically than a less hype-fueled conversation would. A more realistic comment might say something like “there is a potential that maybe job loss might be more drastic than we are prepared for, possibly.”
Normally I’m a fan of colorful, bold writing. You know that.
But in this case: bold + a triggering issue + uneasy audience = clickbait
(Hat tip to Robert Rose.)
The ideas become binary thinking that serves literally no one. The “A” in AI comes to stand for “Armageddon.” And we’re back to the mushroom cloud backfiring infected fireballs.
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Remember that ChatGPT stands for “Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer.” AI is great at transforming. Not so great at originating. (Not really.) (Christopher S. Penn talks about this.)
I believe AI will transform writers… not just writing.
AI has elevated the bar for us all.
Can you write better than the robot? Two choices:
- No? Let’s work on that. Here’s a good place to start.
- Yes? Then how can you use what the robots don’t have—your insights, emotions, experiences, creativity? How can you use the tools as a way to transform yourself?
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There’s another conversation that we should all be having here—without using words like “nuke” and without the fireballs and tsunami and mushroom cloud.
AI is evolving quickly. It is already disrupting the jobs of people who think for a living (people like you and me… but also visual artists, lawyers, architects, programmers).
As the tech gets better… what happens to those jobs? And what happens to thinking? I mused about it here. And Paul Roetzer offers some practical thoughts here.
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I’ll leave you with this thought, which is the same advice my driving teacher Harry gave me decades ago as my nervous hands gripped the wheel of my mom’s Toyota Corolla. I poked the Corolla’s nose into traffic. Cars rushed by, like a tsunami of fireballs ready to nuke the front end of the vehicle.
Harry chucked me on the arm.
“Hey!” he said.
“Keep your head up and your wits about you! Do the best you can. I’m here for you, right beside you. Breathe. We’ve got this.”