Coming around on AI … sort of
If you really knew me, you’d know:
I’m coming out of my defensive crouch / depression about AI
Let me get the bad news out of the way, so I can feel smart:
I’m still very very scared — both for my family and society. A realistic bad scenario is we have massive unemployment (e.g. 40%+ over a couple years). Feels like early 2020 where (from my perch at Airbnb) I saw Covid happening in China and knew it would be bad but the world hadn’t woken to it yet.
All of this is not new. Here’s what is:
- I’ve realized I’m creating this situation by ceaselessly worrying but being unwilling to take action. This week I’ve started taking action
- I’ve accepted AI is happening and I’m mostly powerless to stop it. All I can do is adapt and take advantage the best I can.
- As I transition to my next biz, I’m going all in on AI in my current biz — immersing myself in the tools and learning how I can incorporate them. Goal is to be 100% AI to the extent it helps the biz
Context / learnings:
- Taking action week and embracing this mentality has felt great; I don’t want to paper over the fear, but I feel like it was blocked and I was paralyzing myself a bit by lack of action
- What I get out of being scared of AI? I get to say things I think sound smart to others or will someday (like the warning above). I also get to feel like I’m ahead of the rest of the world in my awareness, which makes me feel special. By being scared and making AI bad, I also got to push aside all the work of adapting to it, which is will take energy.
- I’ve shifted to true appreciation for AI in this moment, even if it is badly disruptive for the world or for me. It gives me a chance to face fear. The tools are very very cool to play with. What an amazing time to be alive, even if it all goes to shit.
Also, in a weird way, I feel AI and all of its disruption could bring a convenient story to help me disengage with my fear of not becoming super rich and successful.
If the rules of the game—in this case the Money & Success Game—change radically in the middle of the game, I don’t fault myself so much for “not winning.” I shift into a mentality of a curious passenger on Planet Earth who happens to have a front row seat to an amazing thing happening in history, rather than a victim.
Maybe this papers over deeper potential growth I could obtain by tackling my desire to win the Game head on. Perhaps the pattern driving my desire to win the Game is driving other unhealthy pursuits too, and by tackling it directly, I’ll get at the cause and not the symptom. Nonetheless, I welcome the opportunity to lighten my grip on the desire nonetheless.