I don’t know about you, but I’ve been loving writing this blog series about our human capabilities in the age of AI. I began by exploring the risks of becoming lazy or letting the machines rule. Then I turned to the positive: the growing importance of teams and, last week, the importance of you.
But what about you? What is it about you that keeps you relevant, no matter what AI can do? What can AI imitate without genuinely experiencing or owning?
You are a leader who can show true empathy, demonstrate courage and accept accountability.
I take some solace from the recent voicing of concerns about the dangers of AI from the AI elite of the frontier companies. Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Google DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis have all supported stronger safeguards and a more cautious approach to advanced AI development. They are sending better signals that they have empathy, courage and a willingness to accept accountability.
What about you as a leader? Where do you need to demonstrate empathy, courage and accountability in this age of AI?
The first that comes to mind is empathy for the people in your workforce who are, or may be, affected by AI — through job loss, changes to their roles or the need to learn new skills.
Courage means holding firm on AI adoption at speed in fulfilment of your organisation’s purpose. It means calling out naysayers, or conversely, calling out reckless deployment and demanding sensible review and challenge.
And with courage comes accountability: being transparent about where and how AI is being used and taking responsibility for the decisions and consequences that follow.
No, AI can’t do it all. Nor do we want it to. Empathy, courage and accountability remain central to human leadership. AI may imitate empathetic language or support decision-making, but people must still exercise judgement, accept responsibility and answer for the consequences.
Life is rich. I am confident it will get richer as we navigate these incredible times.
As always I’d love to hear your thoughts.