Welcome Back to the Future: The New Frontier Isn’t AI…It’s Humanity.

Those who are trying to shape the development, deployment, and use of artificial intelligence from afar through means such as influence, public relations, or rhetoric about “the future” are failing miserably. They keep glossing over fundamental characteristics of artificial intelligence and of the humans they claim to be protecting.

The first characteristic they overlook is simple: artificial intelligence is artificial intelligence, and humans are humans. Let’s focus on the latter for a moment. If I’m on Meta’s platform and one of their AI “feeds” me a human or AI-generated GRWM video and I stop to watch it, the assumption is that something in me is “flawed” and the algorithm is exploiting it. That’s a deeply shortsighted way to think. Once again, we need to comb through the difficult, counterintuitive findings from scientific research (that was not peer-reviewed) published by dating apps. That research matters because dating apps hold data far more honest and revealing than what most of us provide anywhere else including our universities. But even that data is not monolithic, so we must be careful in how we interpret patterns and what conclusions we draw.

This brings me back to my first point. Working with artificial intelligence is a delicate dance. We have to use the tool and collaborate with it to aid our interpretation and help us make sense of the patterns. There is far more happening, not just from a desire standpoint but from a true intelligence standpoint, that we consistently miss. And the core problem is this: those who are shaping these systems and trying to govern their use especially from a far lack humility. They lack cultural humility. They refuse to assume that all humans are, in fact, intelligent.

Now, I am not the smartest person in the room—ever. And yes, it’s a known fact that not everyone is intelligent perhaps not in the same ways. But the greatest challenge of this “new frontier” of computing is something we already know from the mountains of data in the legal system: establishing intent is extremely, almost impossibly, difficult. Even if someone tells you what their intent is, that doesn’t mean it’s true. So the fundamental question, the challenge, the problem, is one I won’t waste time trying to solve. Only those obsessed with control seek a solution to it. I don’t care what someone’s intent is. Loyalty, trust, all of that matters but to what extent? What is true right now may not be true in two hours, much less tomorrow.

What I care about are systems that help me gather and process data and provide intelligence that supports my decisions. I may even empower a system to make decisions on my behalf. And I’m not worried about these systems, because they operate on my intelligence not as some intrusive tool trying to pry into my mind, with its endless and evolving inspirations, as I outlined on my newly launched Substack.

We need to stop trying to control technology and stop trying to control human desire. We’ve attempted to do that for thousands of years with zero success and only more problems. Let technology flourish. Let humans flourish. And yes, there are plenty of bad actors out there—literally, bad actors who can’t hide their intentions because their insecurities and desire for control reveal them instantly. Run that through an AI system, and it will be clear from every angle.

Let go. Step aside. Move on. It’s a new era. Society will be restructured in fundamental ways. We will not navigate rigid environments tethered to devices tracking our brain output (universities for example). That’s not how humans operate. Robots—yes. Humans—no. Our lives will no longer resemble our devices, or rather, our devices will no longer attempt to resemble our lives. We won’t be toggling rigid settings that control our identities. This is why I said long ago that we all live in public. I learned that decades ago while building social networks and online communities at massive scale and speed of thought (Twitter). Artificial intelligence was designed with this kind of data in mind not to guess another person’s intent but to gather the best available information in real time so we can make decisions in the moment. We all live in public, and with these tools, the question isn’t who can convince me to buy something. The question I will ask in return is: Should I buy this? Shoutout to the team at Phia, already solving this.

In this new era, more than at any point in history, humans will have to think for themselves. Those who rely on artificial intelligence to think for them will not evolve. Those who collaborate with these tools especially without implants and develop themselves in wisdom and stature will evolve. That is the true frontier. It’s not just robots and androids it’s more intelligent human lifeforms.

The possibilities are endless.

Welcome back…to the future.

Your “shared values” and moral overtures remain limited in scope to capture or control the breadth, depth, and diversity of human nature. It’s no longer basic information or guidance on how we should live our lives. What are you going to do? Upgrade it? Checkmate. 🏁🪄🕴🏾

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