FORCED TO COMMUNICATE

I had a nightmare the other night. In my sleep, I lived in a world where I could not trust anything I heard or saw, because everything, EVERYTHING, in our world was based on non-human thinking and logic. Artificial Intelligence runs the world. 

And then, I breathlessly awoke, shaking and covered in sweat, with the realization that we might already be there. 

We are now entering a period of human existence where there IS NO REALITY! There is only the perception of reality. And this perception of reality is being generated not by supercomputers in a lab somewhere, but by grade-schoolers to grandmothers simply using their laptops.  I look at AI and what it offers with both wonderment and utter fear. Reality is being manipulated in every way possible. And to mark my word, it is already shaping our perception of the world, from advertising to personal communication. 

We are entering a world where we must train ourselves to be skeptical about any photo or video that we see. We must train ourselves to question everything before we build an opinion, form an attitude, or settle on a perception. Now, I’m not saying we can’t enjoy what we see and hear, but I am saying we must be very careful about what we actually believe. 

It all looks so real.

I’m toying with AI software with my team on a new business project we’re working on. Within minutes of recording my voice and video, my partners showed me a clip of me standing before the Great Pyramids, jumping up and down, and delivering a powerful motivational speech. It was me. It was my voice. But I’ve never been there. Then, with a simple mouse click, we changed my voice to perfect Mandarin Chinese, French, Russian, German, and Spanish. My lips moved perfectly in the new language. Exciting but scary. 

And we’re nowhere close to realizing the full potential of AI applications for personal or business use. We can’t even imagine what is coming. 

So, here’s my point. 

Soon, a written note or a conversation with a friend will be more factually reliable than a photo or a video. Young and old alike have their noses stuck to TikTok and similar apps for hours on end every day. And the disastrous potential is that people come to believe only in the “reality” shown in those videos. They lose the ability to discern reality from the fake and, at the same time, to distinguish logic from fantasy. 

However, there may be a bright side to the avalanche of AI realism. Consider this. AI could be the reason for a shift back to more personal interactions. Maybe the coming generations will learn to question what they see and hear. Maybe, just maybe, people will come to their senses and endeavor to see things for themselves. To sit down with someone and ask questions. To actually go to a live event and see what happens for themselves, rather than watch the media “spin” on an event on their social media. 

We need to be more curious about what is real, rather than simply accepting the computerized version of reality, particularly in business. I see more and more businesspeople relying on AI platforms to educate them about business and leadership issues. And that’s okay, as long as they also reach out to consultants, coaches, and trusted advisors for the “real-world” street-fighting advice drawn from years of real-life experience. 

The immediate threat is that we allow technology to erode our ability to think independently, reason, and solve problems creatively. Humanity needs to learn to work with new and emerging technologies in a balance that strengthens us rather than erodes key skills. We need to relearn how to communicate, maybe to force ourselves to do so with our eyes wide open. 

In the end, nothing will ever replace eye-to-eye contact, having conversations, active listening, debating, even arguing, and experiencing the emotion of dealing with a human, face-to-face, eye-to-eye, belly to belly, toe to toe. 

We cannot lose those skills. Ever!