BY Philippe Lazzarini, CRM & Loyalty Manager at Autogrill
AI will steal millions of jobs in just a few years, and Silicon Valley is fired up about it. But are the leaders of companies driving AI biased? Could they lead us to a world where companies won’t need CEOs or even customers?
Hey there! Don’t worry, this isn’t another “AI is stealing our jobs!” scare story.
I’m a marketing professional and use AI tools everyday, but my passion lies in understanding human behavior. Let me show you a different perspective.
Everyone agrees that AI will drastically change the world. Yet, there’s a lot of debate on “how” and concerns about AI power being held by a few tech giants who might put profits ahead of ethics.
I do believe a crucial “human factor” is often overlooked in this discussion: cognitive bias.
You might have heard of this concept, revealed by Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman and explored by Nassim Taleb in “The Black Swan.”
Biases are mental shortcuts and errors that affect our behavior, decisions and predictions about the future.
What’s my point?
Even though they mean well, Big Tech leaders are unaware of their own biases. This could lead to unexpected consequences from AI.
In other words, I want to explore:
🔮 WHAT Silicon Valley leaders think
🧠 HOW cognitive bias affect their thinking
🌪️WHERE they might lead us (a chilling scenario)
Ready? Let’s unpack all of this.
WATCH FROM 6:12
Average Guy vs Silicon Valley
Earlier this year, Jon Stewart made a great comedy bit on AI going after people’s jobs which I found insightful (check out the video).
How Big Tech responds to the issue:
“This is not about replacing the human in the loop, but it’s about empowering the human” Satya Nardella – CEO, Microsoft
“You can get the same work done with fewer people, that’s the nature of productivity” – Arvind Krishna – CEO, IBM
Well guys, I’m excited about AI tools empowering me, but let me be brutally honest here:
If 1 man with AI can do the job of 2 men without AI, someone will lose their job soon.
Klarna CEO has been upfront about it.
Is this what Silicon Valley leaders really think?
Apparently not.
The Future Big Tech have in mind
Influential tech leaders – such as Bill Gates, Sam Altman, Elon Musk – don’t seem concerned by jobs.
Look at their optimistic vision of the future with AI:
📘 🤖 Fully automated production of goods
⏰ 💼 Drastically reduced work hours
❌ 💻 Work eventually unnecessary
💰🌐 Free Income for all
🧘🎨 Humanity focused on self-development
Sounds like science fiction, don’t you think?
The Sci-Fi paradox
Down in Silicon Valley, they don’t make a mistery of loving science fiction.
But… oftentimes they don’t seem to get it right.
- ChatGPT-4o voice assistant sounding like Scarlett Johansson’s AI in “Her”.
- The term “metaverse” coming from a novel where people run away from a horrible reality.
- Musk tweeting on Tesla Cybertruck’s design being inspired by Blade Runner.
The dystopian fictions are meant to be warnings about technology turning bad. Silicon Valley, do you get the message?
No, they don’t.
Only a minority in Silicon Valley is concerned by things going wrong with AI. OpenAI saga in November 2023 made it plain to see.
Is it that Big Tech leaders are too naive?
Diversity and engineer mindset
Silicon Valley faces a huge problem with diversity, and not just in demographics.
1️⃣ Big Tech leaders adopt an engineering approach.
2️⃣ Their success has made it popular as the winning approach.
3️⃣ But this view is largely a result of survivorship bias.
⚠️ When focusing only on successful examples, you overlook those that failed using the same approach.
🚧 This mindset struggles when applied to human experience: ethics, emotions, and spirituality.
Yet, tech leaders often assume they can “fix life”. Remember Musk arguing with professional rescue workers in the Thai cave?
Blind spots and liberal arts
By sharing the same mindset, Big Tech leaders are vulnerable to availability and confirmation biases.
🔄 They reinforce each other’s views and ignore opposing opinions.
🔮 They get overconfident about predicting the future, and caught off guard by unexpected events(the “black swans”).
What can be done to prevent that?
Some argue that
Silicon Valley needs more people with liberal arts backgrounds in leadership roles.
This could help to:
- Balance the engineering approach.
- Foster doubt, discussion, and compromise.
- Develop ethical AI governance.
But, what if nothing changes?
The Full-AI Economy scenario
Let’s picture Silicon Valley continuing on its current path. The following chain of events could unfold:
1️⃣ Companies leverage AI, eventually removing completely humans from the loop.
2️⃣ As main business decisions get AI-driven, even top managers lose their job. Ironically, Chief HR officers, once advocates for reducing staff with AI, are the first to be laid off.
3️⃣ CEOs realise too late they are not needed anymore as final decision-makers. Shareholders find them useless and just fire them.
4️⃣ In a society where less human decisions are taken, people delegate personal purchases to AI agents.
5️⃣ Companies are now fully AI-driven, with AI as both offer and demand. Market equilibrium is no longer achieved through competition but through algorithms.
