July 01, 2025

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The Human Edge in an AI World

BY FAR, THE biggest concern around AI is how it might im- pact jobs. "Is my job safe?" and "Will my children find jobs in the age of AI?" are common refrains today. This is not surprising, since AI is a cognitive technology, perhaps the first tool we have invented that mimics our brain. Thus, it has abilities and expertise that we consider uniquely human--creativity, art, writing, mathematics and coding. Thus, it ignites a primal fear of loss of livelihood, relevance and one's place in society. These questions are certainly not being asked for the first time. Every time a revolutionary new technology is unleashed, the same thought fearfully raises its head. It bothered Ned Ludd in 1779 when the spinning jenny was invented, as it threatened to take his job as a textile factory apprentice. He went and smashed a machine or two, catalysing a campaign against textile technology, and started the Luddite movement. New-age Luddites worried about PCs and their job-destroying potential; this movement was particularly strident in India with computers being smashed by workers' unions. We were apprehensive that computers would replace accountants, clerks, secretaries, teachers, consultants and scores of others. The reality, as it turned out, was quite different: the PC and the Internet did destroy a few jobs, but created millions more, and today we cannot imagine our life without them; the IT revolution not only created new jobs, but also catapulted India into a tech superpower. As the GenAI tidal wave sweeps across industries and offices, we strongly believe that it will affect corporate work more than anything else. We often do not consider work an industry—though it is a several trillion dollar one—and confuse work with jobs. We are rightly worried about how AI will impact jobs, but tend to neglect how it will impact work. But we need to look at AI and jobs in a nuanced way, and we do so through four lenses: AI will indeed eliminate some jobs Since the Agricultural Revolution, every successful new technology invented has supplanted some jobs. The IC engine made horse and buggy drivers obsolete, computers and Microsoft's productivity software meant we did not need typists any more and telephone switchboard operators and lamplighters became a quaint symbol of the past. So, if you are a journalist who only summarizes stories into short, digestible bits or an average software programmer who builds payroll software, you better start thinking of something else to do! As the GenAI express train rolls into organizations, these jobs are increasingly threatened; cases in point are Vodafone, which wants to cut jobs by nearly half and use AI instead, and IBM, which has halted certain kinds of recruitment for the same reason. There are certain jobs that AI and GenAI won't replace Business magnate and former President of Google China, Kai Fu Lee has this to say: “It is comparatively easy to make computers exhibit adult level performance on intelligence tests, and difficult or impossible to give them the skills of a one-year-old when it comes to perception and mobility.” So, an AI like DALL.E 2 might be able to paint like Picasso, but it cannot do what even infants can—such as crawling around,

FULL SPEED AHEAD

Catherine Dutcher had just turned into the Hardee's parking lot to pick up dinner for her family on an otherwise routine Tuesday evening last September in rural West Fargo, North Dakota, when her phone rang. "Mom," her 18-year-old son, Sam Dutcher, said when she answered, "it's happening again." Catherine knew immediately what "it" wasAbout a week and a half earlier, Sam was behind the wheel of his mother's pearl white 2022 Honda Pilot SUV when it seemed to develop a mind of its own. Sam's foot wasn't on the accelerator, but the car, which had never given the Dutchers any problems, was accelerating anywayThe first-year student at Minnesota State Community and Technical College slammed his foot on the brake. He held it there until the car went into `limp mode', a safety feature of modern cars that activates when the automobile detects a problem with a critical system. When the Pilot came to a stop at the side of the road, Sam called his mom, and they agreed that he shouldn't attempt to drive the vehicle home. Instead, they had it towed to the Honda dealership in FargoFor several days, the technicians ran every diagnostic test they could, but they were unable to duplicate the sudden acceleration Sam had experienced. After the mechanics said that, as best they could tell, everything was fine, the Dutchers--a three-car, three-driver family that was feeling the strain of being down a car--decided to pick up the SUV and bring it homeOn that Tuesday in September, Catherine dropped Sam off at the dealership to pick up the Pilot, then headed to Hardee's. The teenager, who has a mop of wavy brown hair a bit like Mick Jagger's signature hairstyle of the late '60s, got behind the wheel, adjusted the seat and mirrors, and pushed the power button. The engine started, no problem. All systems normalSam pulled off the lot and started the 10-minute drive home. About a kilometer from his parents' house, driving on a two-lane road in Cass County, the speed limit switched from 64 to 88. Sam accelerated, then eased off the gasThe car kept speeding up. Oh no, Sam thought. Not again. He tapped the brakes to slow down-- nothing. He tried pressing the brake pedal to the floor and holding it there to force the vehicle into limp mode again. This time it didn't work. He pressed the emergency brake button, then he tried shifting into park, then reverse, hoping to strip the gears or