Preserving humanity in the AI era

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Humanity is at a crossroads: to AI or not to AI.

Advancements in AI are transforming our world and posing unprecedented challenges, such as massive job displacement. In my undergraduate class on AI, I ask my students: “If one day work becomes optional, how many of you would still choose to work?” The response is typically split between half of the class choosing to work and the other half choosing a different path. In the process, there are often amusing exchanges of looks that seem to ask “What would you do with your time if you don’t work?” or “Don’t you have better things to do with your life?”

This divergence highlights the pivotal nature of the shift we are about to face. AI making human work optional can be a tremendous opportunity for humans to be liberated from work and focus on personal development, and it may also leave many struggling to find meaning and self-worth. Which scenario becomes our future reality depends on our collective values and choices.

Historically, work has been both a necessity and a cornerstone that many rely on for identity, self-worth and social connections. The absence of work leaves a great void that is not easily filled. This void is not just financial, but also emotional and social. A good example is the opioid crisis, which hit the Rust Belt disproportionately hard because it had been devastated by economic decline and job loss associated with the automation of manufacturing jobs. The automation tsunami is now coming after white-collar workers.

If we don’t want history to repeat itself, we need to reconsider our culture and core values. Today’s productivity-driven culture — one that emphasizes efficiency, goal achievements and measurable outcomes — may not serve us well in the coming shift. In such a culture, individual value is often tied to productivity. Individuals who fail to produce measurable outcomes may struggle to feel valued or worthy. Self-worth based on productivity is like a sandcastle built on the beach; it dissipates as soon as productivity goes away.

This productivity-driven culture is a fertile ground for competition. Fierce competition for limited resources and upward-mobility opportunities ultimately leads to involution, when individuals expend increasing efforts without substantial progress. As AI continues to take over work, human workers will feel compelled to work harder to outrun both AI and their peers. Excessive competitive pressure can turn humans into “utility-maximizing machines” who obsess with maximizing productivity and one’s own utility at the cost of other things. These other things — authenticity, care, courage, fairness, kindness, justice, love and social responsibility — are essential to both individual well-being and the well-being of humanity as a whole.

The productivity-oriented culture rewards growth (over maintenance) and doing (over not doing). The problem is that there is no such thing as unlimited growth in life. As Jenny Odell wrote in her book “How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy,” “In the context of health and ecology, things that grow unchecked are often considered parasitic or cancerous.” By pursuing unlimited growth, we are depleting not only our environments but also ourselves.

Additionally, globalization exacerbates competition by connecting the world into a tightly coupled system where local occurrences easily and quickly trigger reactions in distant areas, causing a global arms race in AI. I feel and fear that humanity is riding a self-accelerating and self-perpetuating train, and no one is in control or even aware of its destiny.

Collectively, we want to be in control of our destiny. Looking forward, I wish for a society where my students, regardless of their choice to work or not, can have a meaningful life and feel worthy and valued. A society that values not only growth and doing, but also maintenance and just being. A society where our young people can rediscover meaning in learning, work or whatever endeavors they pursue. A society where business decisions are based on not only efficiency and profitability, but also the impact on human workers and users.

Ultimately, I wish for a human-centered society in which humanity not only survives but thrives, with or without the help of AI. Perhaps the decision is not whether to AI, but why AI and how to AI.

Yuqing Ren is associate professor at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. Opinions in this commentary are intended to represent her personal view, not those of the Carlson School or the university.