Interested in more careers-related content? Check out our new weekly Work Life newsletter. Sent every Monday afternoon.
“The beginning is near.”
That assessment of artificial intelligence seems far behind the times, as we rush to keep up with AI. The comment is even odder because it comes from Reid Hoffman, the LinkedIn co-founder and venture capitalist who was an early investor and board member of OpenAI, which has led the current surge into artificial intelligence. But he believes we are approaching a beginning – a world changing moment, where human agency will be supercharged.
You will be able to do your work in previously unimagined ways, far more productively than in the past. And the rest of your life will also benefit from AI.
Human agency is the notion that as an individual you have the capacity to make your own choices, act independently and influence your own life. Most concerns about AI, he notes in his book Superagency, written with journalist Greg Beato, are concerns about human agency.
As AI systems evolve, he acknowledges, this will mean an increasing number of systems will encroach on areas traditionally governed by human agency. AI’s capacity for self-directed learning, problem-solving and executing complex series of tasks without constant human oversight is increasing, as witnessed by the continuing development of self-driving cars.
But that has been the story of humanity to date, he notes. “As Homo Techne, we are defined by our capacity and commitment to creating new ways of being through our tool-making,” he says. “Now we have an opportunity to develop new supertools. Ones that can increase our agency so much that we’re now in the midst of something akin to the industrial revolution.”
He offers this formula: Intelligence and energy, working in tandem, drive human agency and thus human progress. Intelligence gives us the capacity to weigh different options and plan for different possible scenarios. Energy allows us to take action on our preferred options. The more intelligence and energy we can leverage on our behalf, the greater our capacity to make things happen.
We have amplified human intelligence over our history through the use of spoken and later written language, fire, the wheel, electricity, automobiles, personal computers, the Internet and smartphones. AI, he insists, will enable our next great leap forward.
But it’s different from those other technologies as it’s more than an assist. “Because an AI has the capacity to be agentic itself, setting goals and taking action on its own to achieve them, you can leverage AI in two distinct ways. In some instances, you might want to work closely with an AI – such as when you’re learning a new language or practicing mindfulness skills. In others, such as optimizing your home’s energy consumption based on real-time energy prices and weather forecasts, you may prefer to let AI handle that by itself,” he says.
Either way, the AI is increasing your agency. It’s helping you to take actions designed to lead to outcomes you desire. Intelligence itself, he argues, is now a tool – a highly configurable, self-compounding engine for progress.
This helps you achieve more. But because others are also able to harness this special tool – colleagues, your doctor or your auto mechanic – you benefit yet again. That’s the superagency he envisions.
A significant benefit will come as we grapple with an ever-increasing amount of information. We have reached a stage, he notes, where humanity has produced more information than we can effectively make use of on our own. The more you embrace AI, the more effectively you can tap into that data and information. “We can convert Big Data into Big Knowledge,” he says.
He admits to being an optimist. If you’re skeptical, concerned about the dangers it may pose or not seeing its applicability to your situation, he urges you to think about what possibly could go right.
Quick Hits
- Productivity consultant Laura Vanderkam urges you to look at your schedule and figure out how to build in decompression time after intense events. Even 10 minutes to relax and reset can be helpful as you make your way through the day.
- In Sleep Well, Take Risks, Squish the Peas, Hasan Merali, a pediatric emergency medicine physician at McMaster Children’s Hospital in Hamilton, says we can learn from toddlers: Make taking naps a daily certainty, show kindness to strangers, don’t be afraid to ask for help, and read a story before bedtime.
- Venture capitalist Sahil Bloom says the worst decisions in life are made when you allow your head to talk you into something when your gut already said no.
Harvey Schachter is a Kingston-based writer specializing in management issues. He, along with Sheelagh Whittaker, former CEO of both EDS Canada and Cancom, are the authors of When Harvey Didn’t Meet Sheelagh: Emails on Leadership.