👹 “AI won’t take your job”

So spake the technologist Stephen Biernacki.

I’ve seen this quote popping up on the internet and in newsletters, usually from people who want to sell AI products and services.

What’s missing is his follow-up tweet.

Besides: the original quote always struck me as a bit purblind, akin to when gun enthusiasts say “guns don't kill people, people kill people”. The effect is the same.

AI won’t take your job—someone using AI better than you will. And then AI will take their job, too, lol.

The time in which we could curtail this has well and truly passed. We’re in a new chapter now. And so, we must adapt. We must run alongside the monster, and learn how to wield the dark magic whilst also staying true to what is real.

Do not pine for the days of yore, where intellectual and artistic property* was respected (or at least: attributed). The troves of knowledge have been plundered, and the talent of so many artists have been siphoned into simulacra now.

* I’ve never really liked the term “intellectual property,” because no idea exists in isolation. All is co-created and emergent. But—it is good practice to honour and attribute wherever you can. Simply because this is the right and appropriate thing to do.

Do not think that this can somehow be undone—it’s much too late for that, now.

Instead: rally yourself. You’ve still got wit, wisdom, and wiles. You’ve got true talent, and the sensibilities to see you through. The future needs our poets, scholars, thinkers, and artists. Growers, fixers, healers and weavers.

Rally yourself, and recalibrate to this new world. Resist the vortex-allure of optimisation and homogenised intelligence.

Use the powers, if you must. But keep your wits about you.

Focus on true value, and let that be your beacon.