Just Because You Can Doesn't Mean You Should

I’ve written here a few times of my concerns with AI. Eric Markowitz expresses similar concerns. We began to believe that because a capability exists, it must be deployed. That because a machine can replace a person, the person must go. This is an abdication of our moral duty as humans. It is surrendering our judgment to our instruments and calling it progress. The reason this moment feels so acute, so existential, is not because AI is uniquely powerful — although it is. It’s because AI has arrived at precisely the moment when we have already hollowed out so much of what makes work meaningful. We have already financialized everything. We have already reduced human beings to line items and disposed of them like inventory. We have already built an economy that treats people as costs to be minimized rather than as the very source of the value being created. I also think the idea seeking meaning in their work is fools gold, intended to allow themselves to be used. Finding meaning in work…