Which (AI) path will we choose?

I’m gripped by the story of Hercules at the crossroads (“the choice of Hercules”). Contemplating his future, Hercules reaches a fork in the road and encounters two goddesses. The first, Kakia, looked stunning. Her offer was for a life of luxury, pleasure, and fun without the need for work. The second, Arete, appeared plain yet graceful. Her path would be hard-going, requiring consistent effort, blood, sweat and tears, but with the promise of lasting honour. It was not a straightforward choice for the story’s hero; eventually Hercules chose Arete’s* path. 

There are incredibly strong parallels with the choices we all face in the modern, technology-driven and especially AI-driven world - choices that are urgent and cannot be put off. The choice to pursue authentic human life and work, or a lesser life, might look good on the surface, but it lacks depth and any true worth.  

AI is making this choice stark and urgent. Its development is exponentially fast with implications for practically everyone on the planet. Yes, it gives us some advantages, but it also comes with immense risks. It’s the ‘A’ in AI that gives cause for alarm. Artificial humanness, like artificial food, might give us a short-term ego boost, but it doesn’t nourish us. In fact, too much artificial diminishes and stunts us. None more so than in our relationships.  

What makes us truly human? Surely the essence of true humanity lies in qualities such as courage, curiosity, and kindness, expressed through love, compassion, and joy?

Surely, it’s not how efficient or productive we are, how much we bill, how fast we deliver, or even how many people bow to our will? An excellent life is neither fast nor loose; it’s deep and nourishing. By extension, businesses and organisations that spring from excellent leadership are inherently good. They exist to make the world a genuinely better place, to contribute something excellent and to choose the harder yet deeper path rather than take the shortcut; uncaring, extractive, soulless.  

Our person-to-person relationships and connections are especially on my mind. There is immense value in good, healthy relationships. Think about the last time you showed love, were deeply moved, or got stirred to action. That’s a moment that’s very likely connected to a meaningful relationship. Relationships that matter rarely develop with ease (can I say never?); they take consistent effort, working through rather than evading differences and tensions, choosing to be attentive and present, not distracted or rushed. Familial, friendly and even workplace relationships of any true value require a choice towards the ‘harder path’.  

It’s called being authentic, not artificial.  

And yet AI is becoming a route towards outsourcing our relationships. More and more people, especially young people, prefer interacting with AI companions rather than fostering relationships with real people. There are reasons for this that make logical sense, especially for those who are less social by nature and experience ostracisation and bullying. Yet early studies show that young people who rely on AI companions feel worse as a result. Anxiety increases rather than decreases. The potential for our young people to fail to learn how to work through relational friction is sown.  

Relationships are, fundamentally, inefficient. It’s what makes them so valuable. Pinnacle moments in a friendship (a brilliant holiday together) do not arise from nowhere. They’re built on long-term, consistent time and effort. Climbers who attain a mountain peak have to, well, climb! I don’t know what the stats are, but the ratio of time spent climbing and time at the mountain peak sits very much in favour of the climb.    

AI is creating the allure that we can achieve peak experiences and outcomes without the harder yards, including in our relationships. This is fake news. The quality, value, and even enjoyment in life are found within the very hard yards that AI promises to hack out. We simply can’t be excellent in our relationships - or anything virtuous - without the energy, creativity, determination, tenacity, vulnerability, compassion and a myriad of authentic human qualities that can only come from embracing the difficult adventure of an authentic life.  

As I write this, I ask myself more than anyone, how can I turn this opinion and perspective into something useful, especially for our day-to-day work?  

Perhaps one answer is to connect this to another persistent question, and that’s the difference between management and leadership. When it comes to AI, I can see far more merit in management-related activity than leadership. Good managers plan, analyse, prepare and organise. Excellent leaders possess vision, integrity, courage and a determination to make the world a better place.  

As we lead our workplaces and with AI in mind, perhaps these ideas will help us to choose the virtuous path in a world that’s pressing us towards the other:  

• 1. When considering replacing people with robots, inject the phrase “just because I can doesn’t mean that I should.” This serves as a firebreak, a reflective pause before speeding forward. The pause need not stop the action but may provide space to consider a more virtuous pathway to achieving business success.  

• 2. Banish the word “headcount” from your vocabulary. Use the word “people” instead.  

• 3. Spend more time with people. Choose to be interested in them for who they are, not for what they can do for you. Even better, meet people outside of your usual (comfortable) circle. 

• 4. Become an excellent host. Learn the art of gathering and creating connections between people. Start a book club, invite people for a lunchtime run, host a dinner, take someone out for a coffee.  

• 5. Do something just to be tested. Write something without AI. Speak publicly. Run 10k. Learn to bake the best macarons.   

• 6. Dwell with people who are struggling in life. Volunteer not only in professional roles but in front-line “sleeves rolled up” ways. Listen to them and be willing to be surprised by their experiences.  

• 7. Become a cheerleader for others who are facing a tough choice. Be a source of encouragement and counsel. Similarly, seek out a real-life counsellor (not just, and perhaps not even, an AI companion) who can help you make healthy choices.  

We stand at a crossroads facing the same dilemma as Hercules - to choose between: 

• - virtue and vice 

• - authentic and forged 

• - nourishing and harmful 

• - real and fake 

Which path will you take? How can we help each other take the right one?   

*Arete when translated means virtue or excellence.