Just a few years ago, it would have been hard to imagine how quickly Artificial Intelligence (AI) could become part of our lives. Now we see rapid adoption of tools like Chat GPT, DALL-E and many more. The power of these tools is undeniable. They are competing with some of the best artists, poets, musicians, writers and filmmakers. They are quickly catching up, and sometimes already outperforming, the human capacity for data analysis, insight generation, decision making, and much more. It’s no longer just the routine jobs that are at risk; we can now also start to see how many knowledge workers are on the verge of losing their competitive advantage to advanced AI.
The conditioned response to such an existential threat is to fight or flight. Either we meet the challenge head-on, work harder and try to compete with the accelerating power of AI, or we accept defeat and surrender, hoping that technological progress will create the conditions for a safe & comfortable life for all. Clearly, neither one of these options is going to move humanity forward. We need a different kind of response.
Let’s imagine some years in the future when AI has matured to a point where it has become infinitely better at performing many tasks that humans are doing today. However, rather than becoming obsolete, we have managed to reinvent ourselves to meet this awesome power from a place of strength and harmony. Imagine a future where the expression of our full human BEINGNESS is the next competitive advantage!
In this article, we will explore our current relationship with AI, how we can expect it to evolve in the future and what it means for human beings to “reinvent” themselves going forward. We will also introduce a platform that makes this reinvention fun and accessible for all.
To understand our relationship with AI, let’s start by acknowledging what it is uniquely good at. Clearly, when it comes to executing routine tasks, working tirelessly around the clock and doing so with 100% reliability, humans have already fallen behind many years ago.
More recently, we see AI moving on from these mundane tasks and showing great capacity for more complex reasoning. For example, extracting actionable insight from huge databases, translating these insights into strategies, solving complicated problems, performing complex medical procedures and much more. In other words, AI is quickly evolving in ways that encroach on the human activities that are at the core of many jobs today. Trying to “protect” them is a losing strategy. Instead, why not hand them over and look ahead?
The sooner we acknowledge that AI will outcompete the current knowledge worker, the sooner we can turn our attention to the next stage of our human development. I like to think of the AI revolution as a necessary nudge to accelerate our evolutionary journey. It’s forcing us to leave behind the qualities that have been instrumental in getting us where we are today, and encouraging us to embrace the qualities that will expand our collective consciousness and unleash the greater potential of humanity.
The following diagram is the map we use at BEING at Full Potential to understand the evolutionary journey we are on as human beings. There are many other frameworks, all based on ancient wisdom traditions, that tell a similar story. For example, the research on adult development by Bill Torbert using Action Logics, or the Spectrum of Consciousness by Ken Wilber, which looks at human identity through the broad lens of psychology, psychotherapy, mysticism, world religions (spirituality), and enlightenment. These different approaches are all coming to the same conclusion: we are at the threshold of a new era, a moment in time where we must embrace the fullness and freedom of our humanness so that we can evolve and thrive synergistically alongside AI.
“Vertical learning is not about accumulating knowledge; it’s about transforming who we are and how we show up in the world.” – Robert Kegan
Making this kind of shift (from Reason to Wisdom based consciousness) requires us to engage in vertical learning. It’s an inner journey of getting in touch with our deeper essence. Instead of adding new layers of knowledge (often characterized as horizontal learning), we are deliberately “peeling the onion” so that we can start to see beyond the conditioning and show up with greater authenticity and connection to the world around us. This journey brings us back in touch with the deeper qualities that unite us as human beings and helps us access new inspiration to effectively meet the complex issues we face at a societal level.
To make this journey back HOME, to who we really are, more tangible and accessible, we encourage you to take advantage of the Platform for Human Potential Development. This is a place where you can deeply immerse in 23 basic human qualities that bring us back in touch with the human spirit. You can access a wealth of resources, take the Human Potential Assessment and engage in practical exercises that are directly applicable to your day-to-day life. The platform is free and accessible to all because we believe that Human Potential Development is a basic human right and the key to a thriving partnership with AI.
Join us on this journey to unleash our collective potential: https://beingatfullpotential.io
