The future of work is not about lost jobs; it is about the loss of human capability to find its way. Madhavi Venkatesan writes.
Much of the discussion surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) and the future of work has focused on employment and productivity. Common questions include: which jobs will AI eliminate and which ones will it create; will AI substitute for workers or complement them; and, perhaps most importantly from an economic perspective, will AI allow us to produce more with fewer resources?
These are reasonable questions. But they reflect the way we have traditionally evaluated technological advancement: through efficiency, productivity, and economic output. What if these measures are insufficient? What if the more important question is not simply what AI allows us to do, but what our reliance on AI may eventually leave us unable to do?
Human beings have always adapted to their environment. Over evolutionary time, changes in climate, geography, disease, food availability, and the natural world contributed to biological adaptation. In this sense, the environment has not simply been something external to human development. It has helped shape who we have become. Technology, meanwhile, has always altered this relationship.Calculators reduced the need to perform some calculations mentally. The development of the Global Positioning System (GPS) changed how we navigate. Mobile phones, once expensive conveniences, have become so integrated into daily life that it is increasingly difficult to participate in society without one. In each case, a technology that began by helping us do something eventually changed how we did it – and, in some instances, whether we retained the ability to do it independently.
AI may represent a more fundamental shift. Unlike many earlier technologies, AI does not simply alter the physical environment in which we operate. It increasingly mediates the cognitive environment through which we understand that world. It writes, summarises, analyses, calculates, recommends, and creates. Increasingly, it also informs our decisions.
We are therefore doing something potentially unprecedented. We are constructing a synthetic cognitive environment while simultaneously adapting ourselves to the environment we are creating. The implications extend beyond the familiar concern that AI may eliminate jobs.
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