If AI Gets Smarter, What Makes Us Valuable?
Most of the discussion about artificial intelligence concerns what it can do—and whose work it might take over. This essay by Reid Hoffman asks a broader question: What makes being human worthwhile when machines can perform more of the activities we associate with intelligence?
That caught my attention. Retirement already gives some of us practice separating our identity from the work we used to do. We still have interests, relationships, judgment, and things we want to contribute.
Hoffman explores the value of making things, playing, creating, caring for others, and imagining possible futures. There is a fair amount of philosophy along the way, but the underlying question is accessible: What do we want these new capabilities to help us accomplish?
It also connects with something I have been writing about. Building more capable tools still leaves us responsible for deciding what deserves to be done with them.
An optimistic, thoughtful read—and one worth discussing.
Read “It’s time to reintroduce ourselves” by Reid Hoffman
