AI - what you NEED to know
1 Aug 2023 · 1 min
James Laughlin argues that AI will transform work and life, and those who learn its terms and applications will have an advantage. The real differentiator will be authentic human connection: empathy, curiosity, tonality, and vulnerability. He urges you to deepen those skills now.
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Welcome to Lead On Purpose. I'm James Laughlin, former seven time world champion musician and now executive coach to global leaders and high performers.
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If you're not thinking about AI, talking about AI or learning something about AI, I'm going to suggest that you're on the back foot. It's not too late to start to see where the curve's going and to stay amongst it and maybe even to get ahead of it. But it's absolutely crucial that you start to consider what AI does in your life already, because it's already existing in your life, unless you live under a rock somewhere. But AI is going to become more and more prevalent in everything that we do, whether it's grocery shopping, driving, doing things online, communicating with people, working with people, developing products, booking airline tickets. You know, AI is going to be so deeply integrated into what we do. And let's face it, if you don't know how to use the Internet now, you know, you went through the 90s and the early 2000s and you ignored it and said that's a thing, that's a fad. Well, you probably would struggle to operate in today's setting, even just checking your bank account. I mean, who goes to their bank to check their bank statement? Nobody. Very few. Maybe one in a billion. Most of us jump on an app or at worst go on the desktop and check our bank statements. So AI is this generation's biggest transformation. It's the biggest thing that's came along that will transform how humans interact. And I want to tell you something. I know that AI will take maybe your job, but it will definitely take millions and millions of people's jobs. But I'm going to just go a bit deeper than that, because I believe it's not AI itself that will take over people's jobs. It will be people so humans who actually know how to use AI to that will take over the job. So if you are one of the humans who denies AI thinks it's not relevant, the chances are you're in a much higher category in terms of a percentage of being replaced. You want to be the human who knows how to engage with AI, use it, utilize it, deploy it. To me, that's going to be crucial, no matter what industry you're in, that you know how to use AI, you know what it means, you know what all the terms are, you know, AGI, all those simple things, we've got to understand what they mean. And of course, there's a lot of sensationalism around AI and how it's going to crush the world. And look, we heard the same things when the TV came about. We heard the same things when, you know, we sent a rocket to the moon and Mars. We know that this kind of progression is scary for some because it's unknown. As humans, we don't like the unknown. AI is. We're heading into the unknown. This mind, this computer mind, this language model can learn on its own accord. And as humans who like to control everything, it's very scary. But when you start to listen to the greats, the founders of AI, the people who've developed AI but then walked away because they can see that humans are starting to misuse it. A great example is Mo Gadot. So we've got Mo scheduled to come on the show soon. He's the former AI executive director at Google and Google X, and he talked about how scary it's going to be in the wrong hands, but also how it's going to be a fantastic thing if used well. And you're listening to other, the founder of OpenAI, same thing. There's so much good that will come from this. The world is going to benefit from this, the planet, people. But it's all going to rely on it being used well. It's no different than a gun, right? Guns. We haven't seen a disappearance of guns. But guns by themselves sitting there are not nasty or evil. It's when humans get behind those guns and make poor decisions, nasty decisions, evil decisions. It's going to be the same with AI. There's going to be 99% of people who utilize AI for good, and there's going to be the 1% for bad. But that's why we as a race will work together to make sure that we can protect our planet, our people, from the small few who decide to use AI for bad. But I just want to reiterate, you need to consider doing a bit of research. I start always super simple. I start in learning mode, curious mode, asking mode. I've got another director executive from former, formerly from Google, who was in AI, and he's going to come on the show as well in the next couple of weeks to chat about his experience and where to and what we should be looking for and how we integrate. And I'm very much at the point where, hey, I don't know nearly enough, but I would be comfortable in saying I know more than maybe 80 to 90% of the global population. Why? Not because I've got any genius at all, but. But because I've done something very simple. I went into YouTube, I created a private playlist. I went and looked for who are the front runners, who are the people that are regarded as experts, founders, challengers of AI And I created a playlist. And in traveling to South Africa, I listened to that entire playlist and took notes and shared my insights with people, friends, clients, and got challenged on those ideas and gives me a better understanding of what's happening here. With AI, I'm not scared in the slightest. Look, getting in my car each day I'm more scared. Chances of someone texting while they're driving and crashing into me much higher than AI destroying my life in the next five minutes. In fact, AI might be the solution to that distracted driver. AI might drive the car for them much better than they could because AI will be able to work with robotics, nanotechnology, and it won't have hangovers, it won't be tired, it won't. Will always be alert. So I'm going to urge you to do the same thing. Look, learning is not easy. Learning is not passive. You've got to engage. So what are you going to do this week, today, to actually learn a little bit more about AI? Look, here's the one truth about AI, and this was the. From all of the learning and listening and asking that I've done to date, this was the one thing that was the common thread. This was the golden thread that ran through everyone's rhetoric. And I firmly believe it to be true. And all of the time that I've spent over the years studying Nelson Mandela, this actually underpins a lot of those learnings I gleaned from him. And that is this. As AI grows, as AI becomes more prevalent as AI becomes ingrained in every aspect of our human lives, there's going to be one thing that becomes irreplaceable. There's going to be one thing that's going to become the most sought after gem in the whole world. And the people that have this will be the people that thrive. They will be the people that lead, they will be the people that move towards their outcomes with flow and with conviction. This one thing, this one trait is going to become gold. And people that already understand this, you know, you can see it in the depth of their relationships, you can see it in the breadth of their curiosity and thinking. Look, the one thing that is going to become so valuable is this human connection. That's right. As AI grows, human connection will become the most sought after skill and trait and attribute. How you connect with other humans, your tonality, your curiosity, your body language, your empathy, your vulnerability, that is going to become the gold. And I've said many months ago that the alpha male aggressive approach is just dying and there's no room for it. AI is going to speed that up because a lot of the things that the Alpha male wants done or tries to do himself and alpha females too, AI will just take care of all that. And so the gold and the cream that will rise to the top is human connection. And you can only connect with other humans when you meet them on common ground. And you can only meet people on common ground when you're empathic, when you're curious. I said this a long time ago and I'll say it again, I heard this probably a decade ago. The most interesting person in the room is the most interested person in the room. Ask questions. I met a leader in recent months who's world renowned, who's, yeah, a household name. And I was really disappointed. I've met many great performers, leaders, innovators, but this one was just so self focused, borderline arrogant about their achievements. It was. I was counting down the minutes to leave. I'd actually been so excited for that meeting, but whilst I was sitting in that, I was so excited to finish it and leave it and wrap it up. And I was the one kind of looking at my watch at the end going, okay, yeah, we've heard enough. And I tried to be empathic and interested and curious, but it was just, it was toxic and there was no two way street. And I felt that this leader doesn't have a bright future in the past for sure, but when you start to rely on your past performance to prop yourself up, it's not a healthy Way to go. So I want you to think about that. What have you achieved in your life and I know you have achieved. There'll be different things that you've achieved throughout your career, your life. Be proud of them, but don't rely on them. You're only as good as your next performance. You're only as good as as your next conversation. You're only as good as the next conversation you have with someone at a restaurant who's waiting on you, serving you. How do you speak to them? How do you treat them? Are you the finger clicker? I hope not. If you're listening to the show, I know you won't be that person. I've seen that in every country I've traveled to. There's always that entitled person. How you treat people who you perceive to be at a lower station than you to me says a lot about you. Human connection is the difference that will make the difference. My challenge to you after listening to this episode is ask yourself the question, how can I deepen my human connection? I want you just to focus on that. And please do me a favor. Share this episode with someone who's currently talking about AI, or even better, someone who's not talking about it, who needs to think about it. I want this to be two pronged. One, I want people to consider going out and do more research on AI and I will be bringing you some experts in the next few weeks. But two, I also want this episode to inspire you and anyone you send this to to really appreciate that the most valuable asset in your life moving forward for the next many, many decades is your human connection. So thank you for listening today. Super excited for our next episode. But for now, please get out there and lead your life on purpose.
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