This year’s AI hacking incidents in the US and Australia showed us that AI can be recalcitrant – and that we’re at the mercy of the AI providers to reign their agents in. And to add to our feeling of helplessness, there’s the reports that AI can lead to human extinction within the next decade.

Developing superintelligence is not like playing Russian roulette; it is more like undergoing risky surgery for a condition that will otherwise prove fatal.
– Nick Bostrom

SIGH.

On a positive note, we have some inspiring thought leaders providing solutions to our AI woes – like Swedish philosopher Nick Bostrom, who says we need to focus on optimising the timing of AI for human survival. In addition to reminding us of the existential threats our planet and race already face, he argues that fast AI development with ultra safe deployment may be the risk we have to take and that no matter what course we pursue as a race, leadership matters more than ever before. You can see why I’ve become a bit of a fan of his lately!

Most of us, however, are not in a position to influence the optimal timing of the AI frontier. But while we must necessarily put our trust in others, our focus as leaders must be on optimising our own AI deployment. And, as you have likely already noted, it is a collective effort.

Collective decision making is something I’ve specialised in for over 25 years and the subject of my book Team Think: How Teams Make Great Decisions. While it was written at a time of emergent AI, and I suggest some use cases to aide collective decision making in the book, AI has accelerated well past those use cases. However, the crux of effective collective decision making remains unchanged.

Effective collective decision making is not about getting everyone to agree. It’s about helping a group think well together. Every person brings a different view of the world, different experiences and different biases. The challenge is not to remove those differences but to use them. The best teams create clarity of purpose, encourage robust discussion, surface information that would otherwise remain hidden, and develop a shared understanding of what really matters. When that happens, decisions flow more quickly, implementation improves, and the collective intelligence of the team becomes greater than the sum of its parts. That is why great organisations focus less on decision makers and more on decision making.

As a leader, what has been your focus in leading and/or supporting AI adoption?

And, as always, I’d love to hear your thoughts.