It’s easy, mainly if you work in Silicon Valley, to believe everything can be explained through math and science. The limitations of today’s AI exist simply because we still need to build it bigger and more powerful. Along with many others in the tech sector, I disagree with that argument. AI technologies sometimes do a poor job—they will always be unsuitable for many human work activities, no matter how hard the sales pitch. In the real world, we humans face multiple daily situations that cannot be solved by applying predefined rules or procedures. AI is, or at least can be, very effective indeed, but by definition, it doesn’t possess, nor is it able to leverage, tacit knowledge. AI is not self-aware, nor does it have any form of intuition. There is a bumpy ride ahead when reality meets inflated promises. Even so, AI’s momentum shows no signs of slowing down.
The bottom line is that we need to pay attention to Amara’s Law and address concerns now, not once they have impacted society, not when it’s too late. It’s not that all AI is wrong or that people are leading the AI revolution with unsavory intentions (although there may be at least some truth to that). Instead, nobody has a detailed picture of what will happen other than knowing that agentic AI will have a considerable impact. Yet, as of today, few, if any, have any real plan to mitigate the potential worst outcomes, and those plans will come from concerned workers, employees, environmentalists, unions, and communities. If there is one thing I am sure about, they won’t come from tech companies and their investors.