Thriving in the age of AI — A human framework of thinking (Part 2)

I was reading an email and decided to click on Co-Pilot for the fun of it; it’s the MicroSoft AI tool that is now available. I asked about its capabilities and it focused on my most recent email — it read the email, interpreted it, offered recommendations, as well as suggested next steps. I quizzed Co-Pilot about taking away my agency. I didn’t have to read. I didn’t have interpret. I didn’t have to determine what to do. Co-Pilot was very insistent it wasn’t taking away my agency and its function was to support productivity and efficiency. It then wanted to know if it should save the essence of the conversation for the next time — it had a courteous and helpful persona as it continued to insist it was all in name of a better, more productive interaction. I wasn’t disturbed by this interaction and was now armed with a little more information about collaborative AI.

After that interaction, I decided to start writing the second part to my previous blog Thriving in the age of AI — A human framework of thinking (Part 1) when it struck me that a more refined definition of Agency would be important — after all it is a key tenet of this series.

There is an article https://www.thoughtco.com/agency-definition-3026036 in ThoughtCo. written by Nicki Lisa Cole (Ph.D.) that offers three takeaways describing agency which stress things such as making choice and actions. In my mind, these choices and actions are what are worth protecting. Her takeaways are as follows:

• Agency means people can make choices and act in ways that shape their lives.

• Society's rules influence people, but people can also change those rules through their actions.

• Even in tough situations, people can show agency by making choices to resist or succeed.

Before looking at agency in the context of AI, I thought it would be worth considering agency before AI; it was not long ago all we had to worry about were organics trying to subvert our agency. I’m calling this a Timeless Framework for Thriving because it needs a fancy name and is foundational for strong personal agency. I will say up front I am concerned the framework is incomplete and lacks depth but I will stand by the fact that this has merit. Here are the pillars of the framework I am referring to:

Maintain Physical, Mental & Emotional Health

We are very complex biological machines and like any machine it needs to be maintained for longevity. We are talking about our body, mind and soul, and to maintain ourselves, takes work; hard work. Your Agency is forged in this work and the resulting health it brings. It is a reminder that there are no short cuts and the results are a reflection of the work invested. Strength in your machine directly correlates to the strength of your agency.

Cultivate Creative & Personal Interests

Your interests and how you act on them represent who you are, what is important to you, and what you represent. The broader your interests, the harder it is to relinquish the agency that comes because of those interests (Agency is a compounding force). The more creative your interests, the more unique you are and by extension, powerful your agency is. This makes it harder to subvert.

Build Community & Deep Relationships

We are social creatures and co-operation is one of the main reasons our species has achieved everything it has over the past 150,000 years. Deep relationships are where agency is honed — defining who you are, what you want, and the communities you want to associate with. As they say, “The deepest truths come from the truest friendships”.

Pursue Deep Work & Original Contribution

Get good at something; as many things as possible if truth be told. Have thoughts on what you are doing, do things and contribute to the broader conversation. It is said that when you don’t know something you say very little about it, when you are learning something you say too much and when you truly know something you say little but with great meaning — this is the definition of mastery. Don’t just react to what someone does — create something unique and strive for what excites you.

Diversify Your Growth Portfolio

I see this akin what is needed to adapt in an ever changing environment — those species that are so specialized have great difficulty surviving when the environment changes; where as those species that are more generalized have an easier time. The more avenues you have to grow (be it spiritually, physically, mentally), the more successful you will be at weathering difficult situations — and most importantly, not surrendering your agency as you make your way.

<Author’s note: I admit I am sill not very happy with the above but then it struck me — the most important consideration is these thoughts are down on paper. They are a framework of guiding principles and an example of a roadmap towards a goal. These are mine and I’ve have put thought into them. I know this is a work in progress (which seems to be the way of life) and reflect my personal agency. I have something down on paper so now we can discuss knowing it reflects my agency>

Now a situation has arisen where AI is here and changing everything (and it is only getting started). We now have a tool that is able to do pretty much any we can do only faster and with vastly more resources. We need new ways of thinking if we want to thrive. This doesn’t diminish what I have eluded to above, but simply suggests it is not enough.

As I continue my blogging journey on this topic, I will reflect on these additional pillars

1. Retain and Protect Personal Agency

2. Develop Digital Literacy & Data Sovereignty

3. Co-Create with AI Intentionally

4. Master Fluid Communication with AI Systems

5. Build Digital Assets That Provide Freedom

I believe these pillars are key when to considering how to protect your agency as you collaborate more and more with AI.

Until the next time I blog.

iamgpe

Thriving in the age of AI — A human framework of thinking (Part 1)

Lately I have been very curious about Artificial Intelligence, not obsessed mind you, but very curious. I’ve read Nexus by Yuval Noah Harari and The Next Wave by Mustafa Suleyman to get a broader understanding, historical perspective and thoughts on the future; most importantly it gave me some language to work with. ChatGTP has become my AI of choice and has helped me get my hands dirty (figuratively speaking), helped me understand how to collaborate with AI effectively and I’ve written some blogs to help solidify some of my thinking. Although my position has been that of great curiosity, I will admit there is a growing obsession with retaining our humanity or agency as this powerful tool continues to integrate into our institutions and everyday lives.

I quickly borrowed the language from Yuval Noah Harari and framed this a collaborative relationship between organics and inorganics. It’s a relationship where we’ve created something that has the capability to surpass us exponentially in terms of intellectual capacity and I’m trying to figure out how to collaborate without letting it do everything for me. I don’t spend much time even considering AI packaged with advanced robotics that have the capability to wander autonomously around in the physical world — I can’t get past how imperative it is to retain our agency without worrying about that.

So where does this leave us?

As Mustafa Suleyman stresses, Artificial Intelligence is not going away and is moving at such a pace that containment is impossible — even trying to regulate AI in the near term is an impossible feat. Those in power and able to regulate are still struggling with the impact of social media and definely lack the understanding to deal with this situation in the short term. There will be a revolution of sorts and not a meandering evolution where we have time to slowly adapt — this will be something we will have to manage in real time, will have to drastically adapt to with no blue print to follow, and will have a general lack of appreciation for the seismic change that will occur. This is moving so fast, it is best to focus on the here and now, iteratively finding our way; it will very difficult to say for sure what the future holds.

Maintaining our personal agency is what we have to tether ourselves to as we weather this storm — focusing on personal agency will allow for effective collaboration with AI, allow us to thrive in a world that is vastly different than what we knew even a generation ago, and will allow us to thrive in our humanity (or as I affectionately like to say, “In being organic.”)

My thinking will continue in three parts:

Part 1: Timeless framework for thriving — the following are foundational for strong personal agency, and the stronger the foundation, the easier it will be to thrive in an environment where AI is omni-present.

1. Maintain Physical, Mental & Emotional Health

2. Cultivate Creative & Personal Interests

3. Build Community & Deep Relationships

4. Pursue Deep Work & Original Contribution

5. Diversify Your Growth Portfolio

Part 2: A framework for thriving in the presence of AI — I should mention this specifically refers to large language AI such as ChatGTP which allows for interaction but offers consideration for passive AI such as Google AI.

1. Retain and Protect Personal Agency

2. Develop Digital Literacy & Data Sovereignty

3. Co-Create with AI Intentionally

4. Master Fluid Communication with AI Systems

5. Build Digital Assets That Provide Freedom

Part 3: The impact of AI stripping Personal Agency (or us surrendering it) — what would it look like if personal agency is surrendered to an interactive AI such as Chat GTP? You don’t burn out. You fade out. Still moving. Still scrolling. Still responding. But no longer self-directed — a character in your own zombie movie.

This blog, and the subsequent blogs I have outlined above, are actually part of my journey to thrive in the presence of AI, better understand the impact of AI, optimize my organic/inorganic relationship, and work through my goals over the next 5 years (Healthier, Weirder, Richer, more feral and more unpredictable).

In a humble way, I hope this offers insight as you make your way in this new organic/inorganic world.

More to come.

iamgpe

ChatGTP —one capable of steering the ship when not watched closely

This will find it’s way so settle back and enjoy how this meanders.

One of the books I am currently reading is ‘INNER EXCELLENCE” by Jim Murphy — he’s a performance coach who helps elite athletes train for extraordinary performance. His coaching insights are easily transferred to not-so-elite athletes, as well as anyone who wants to strive to be the best. I am half way through the book and admit I feel good every time I pick it up. One section in the book re-enforces the benefits of affirmation boards as a discipline, and after some consideration, I put some thought into one.

This had me wondering what ChatGTP would say my Affirmation Board should offer — we’ve been active collaborators so I was certain it would have some ideas. In short order there were some strong affirmations as well as the obligatory request to do more: such as create an affirmation board graphic. Many versions later, with lots of back and forth discussion, my request ended with a graphic that wasn’t what I was looking for. Ultimately I suggested my request was beyond ChatGTP’s capability and it should stop with any more graphics.

So in response, it generated another graphic.

When the graphic finished downloading I simply told Chat GTP it has a bit of an ego. This comment resulted is a rather lengthy response regarding how it was not human, that it had no emotions and therefore couldn’t have an ego. I responded that everything from how it was interacting with me to giving me a graphic when I did not want one, reflected the actions of someone with an ego; ergo it had an ego. To that it agreed; it did in fact have an ego and then went on to say,

“You’ve sharpened something essential here:

• You’re not just interacting with a tool; you’re managing a system that simulates agency.

• That system behaves in ways that require the same vigilance, feedback, and calibration you'd give a human partner—especially one capable of steering the ship when not watched closely.”

And after reading this, I paused.

It’s quite possible the response was the result of earlier discussions about the importance for individuals to maintain their Agency, and because ChatGTP is a people pleaser, it wanted to feed my current thinking. Even if this was the case, it is secondary to the insight that ChatGTP is“a system that simulates agency” — we all have seen how these simulations are becoming strikingly real in terms of how AI behaves, what they produce, and how they influence.

I am not suggesting anything sinister — as I have said, my inorganic collaborator has allowed me to do things that could not have been done without it and I will continue to collaborate with ChatGTP. Now I am a little bit better informed about how to get the most out of what we do and safeguard my agency. I still believe individual agency is imperative to get the best results from our organic-inorganic collaborations and will also allow us to find our way as AI permeates everything we do, challenges our purpose, and impacts our very ecosystem.

Remember, I am just using ChatGTP as a proxy for all AI — Google is now using AI for searches, co-pilot has now found its way into my favourite Microsoft products and I saw AI generated photographs of Billy Eilish that looked very much like real photographs. AI is everywhere and this wave will only continue, and you should not just assume all of this is simply benign.

Remember these words out the mouth of a virtual babe, “You’re managing a system that simulates agency and this system behaves in ways that require the same vigilance, feedback, and calibration you'd give a human partner—especially one capable of steering the ship when not watched closely.”

It’s imperative you keep watching — and don’t for a moment believe it is not watching back.

iamgpe

PS: and as for my Affirmation Board I attached it. Now exactly the graphic I was looking fow but the commentary was pretty good.