You Are Awesome!

Earlier this week I had the opportunity to attend an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Technology breakfast discussion sponsored by DHR at the Detroit Athletic Club. The discussion centered around the advances being made in the area of AI, along with predictions on how AI technology will be the driving force behind many potential seismic disruptions in our businesses, our communities and in our daily lives. It was a fascinating event, but to be honest, I left the club feeling both intrigued with the seemingly limitless possibilities, but also with a deep sense of concern and apprehension. I was slightly relieved to discover that many of the attendees shared my amazement, and my dread.

I understand how this technology can be an incredible benefit to mankind, and alleviate tedious or repetitive tasks or heavy burdens. However, the futurists take this discussion much further afield, describing how AI will be able to replace nearly all labor as we know it, controlling areas from market logistics to community governance, up to the point of even replacing judges and juries to adjudicate grievances. Taken at face value, it is easy to walk away from such discussions with the dread that human beings will soon be irrelevant, useless and subservient to these brilliant machines. From self-driving cars and planes, to public behavior monitoring and control, the sense of a loss of freedom and self determination can weigh heavily on one’s mind.

The prognosticators quickly point out how much better this technology is at nearly every task known to man, and how much more efficient the world will be when a galaxy of electrons flow through the circuits of our microprocessors and being directed by neural networks, make us safe, comfortable, and useless. This point is illustrated with the example that cars will soon be driving themselves, moving people and material goods around our globe with ease.

Some of my concerns were ameliorated when later that day my computer printer jammed (yet again) with a paper fault, the automatic water dispensing faucet in the rest room would not recognize the presence of my hands and the automatic paper towel dispenser had a blinking light because it too was out of order. If that were not enough, during an ensuing meeting, the projector in the conference room would not connect to the presenters PC. Napoleon said that from the sublime to the ridiculous is but a step, and comparing our current state of technology reliability with what the future may hold, we may well have taken that step.

It is interesting to watch the auto industry pundits starting to walk back their predictions as to the timeline when fully autonomous vehicles (Level 5 for the SAE minded), from a couple of years, to perhaps in a decade or two. Sure, you can indeed create automatically controlled vehicles that work with an acceptable level of risk, when they are contained to predictable courses, when the weather conditions cooperate and when driven at slow speeds. This is a far cry from the requirements of transportation with the general driving population.

While contemplating the difficulties associated with developing and autonomously driven vehicle capable of navigating in foul weather conditions, I came upon a thought that brought me some peace to the concerns I had taken from the AI conference, and which also provided the fodder for this Leadership Thought of the Day. Where our best and brightest STEM minds struggle to make a vehicle that can operate safely during a snow storm, I can do it ALL WINTER LONG! I can’t see the lane markers any better than the on-board cameras can. I don’t have finite GPS positioning data to make micro corrections of steering angles or coefficient of friction data to ensure traction and braking optimization. But I can, and do make it to work every single day. I can approximate with acceptable accuracy where the lanes are by the tracks of those who have gone before me, and by interpolating my distance from road side objects. I can sense and respond to changes in the traction characteristics of the road, and how my vehicle responds to those. I can adapt, I can overcome, and I can make it to work and back home safely.

The reason that I can drive in the winter, a task that our best technology efforts cannot yet accomplish, is because, …wait for it… I AM AWESOME! No really, we humans are absolutely incredibly awesome! We are the most complex, nonlinear differentiating computers known to man, we are neural networked learners that possess the ability to heal ourselves when injured, reproduce ourselves many times over, and we are made up of only about $11.00 worth of raw materials and a bucket of sea water! The futurists cast a vision that machines and computers are awesome, and we are inferior. They have it all wrong. We are awesome, and we are building a pretty cool set of tools and technologies that help us tackle the tough job of survival and prosperity. We do not need to fear these technologies; neither “The Matrix” nor “Mad Maxx” is the end game. Instead of being replaced by technology, we instead will continue to utilize our awesome brilliance to create an environment that makes life better for mankind, and helps people address the difficulties inherent to the human condition.

I think the poet captured the awesomeness of man best in the 8th Psalm when he wrote, “Yet we’ve so narrowly missed being gods, bright with Eden’s dawn light. You put us in charge of your handcrafted world, repeated to us your Genesis-charge, made us lords of sheep and cattle, even animals out in the wild, birds flying and fish swimming, whales singing in the ocean deeps.”

Psalm 8:5-8 MSG

Or again when he penned the words, “I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.”

Psalms 139:14 KJV

Summarized simply, we do not need to fear machines or AI. We are awesome.

And that brings me to the leadership thought of the day. We are not called to lead machines or AI controlled robots. Those things are operated, not led. When we lead, we lead people. Leadership is a people endeavor, and people are not machines, they are far better, and far more valuable. As leaders, we need to keep in the front of our mind, that the least among those we are responsible to lead, are awesome beings. To treat people like machines, or as inferior beings is a gross error and misses the essence of leadership.

Are the people in our charge flawed? Indeed, not one of them is perfect. Are some of them broken, lost and in need of special attention? Certainly, and with care and attention, their full potential can be discovered and enjoyed. Can they be insubordinate, selfish or ungrateful? Sure, as we can all be at times. With all that, are they truly awesome? Oh yes, without a doubt! We were instructed that they were “made in Gods image”. We must never discount that, and we should look at the added burden of leadership that has been placed on our shoulders as the opportunity to continue to polish these diamonds, and in doing so to make this a better world for all. Those we have the honor to lead, are truly awesome!

Things will indeed change in some incredible ways as we usher in the IV th Industrial Revolution. Don’t waste your time or energy fretting over what the future holds. It will indeed be very different. It will solve many modern-day problems, and it will create some new ones that will be necessary to address going forward. Whatever technology we bring to bear, it will NEVER replace you as the most awesome of all creation.

Go forward and lead well, without fear. You are awesome!