Labor Day was created to honor the dignity of work. It's a day to remind us that the economy is not empowered by politicians or algorithms. It is driven by people who wake up every day and do the work that keeps America moving. This will be a good time to pause this and think about the current story. AI is basically replacing everyone.
There's a risk of ranking, so give it a little background. In 1998 I built profits, a “specialist system,” and converted complex financial numbers into plain English. It is still used today. The expert system was the early predecessor of AI. The idea was simple. It helps business owners understand their financial statements in a way that allows them to make better decisions. It worked so well that the banks started using it.
My fear was that people were relying too much on the system. And they did. Instead of using it as a tool to inform decisions, some lenders used it as a decision-making alternative. Today's credit scores are meaningful heuristic at best, but they're using them so badly, technology has become an alternative to common sense at times. That was by no means the point. Numbers on the page, or words that are spewed out by programs, cannot replace the important functions that humans wish to have: common sense and judgment.
Fast forward to today, the world is stuck with AI. Technology leaders say they will take over the roles of almost every human being, from lawyers and doctors to teachers and truck drivers. If you believe in the headline, it's only a matter of time before a computer does everything we do and is better. I think they're overplaying their hands. The reality is: Computers are great at crunching data, but they don't think about it. They have no judgment. They don't know how to say “I don't know.”
Recently I have tested various systems by asking: I have long, confident and regained my documented answer. There was one small problem. Elon Musk did not run a landscaping company. The system didn't hesitate, did not flag the question as flawed, and did not modify its answer. They just made something.
I have learned that high human intelligence is the ability to say, “I don't know” or “Your question is wrong.” In other words, actually thinking. And, importantly, if these systems don't understand what they don't know, then they wonder about their claims of what they know. Imagine a world where people blindly rely on answers when questions are wrong or when answers require context. Unfortunately, we are not far from that, I am afraid. And that's the problem. These systems not only make things wrong, they make them wrong, they make them wrong for authority.
Labor Day is about respecting the human side of your work. Remember that the economy is more than just a spreadsheet. Computers cannot paint a home, repair pipes, or run small businesses. You can't start a company, manage your team, or inspire your community.
This is why it's worth pushing back the AI hype. Work has always been more than productivity. It is also about thinking critically, taking responsibility for your output, which can only come from us.
When we celebrate this Labor Day, remember: ai is not as smart as advertising. It's not a threat. It reminds us that humans are still the most valuable part of the economy. You cannot outsource your thinking. And we should not make them believe that we can do it.
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