A Human Approach

Jae Rang Headshot

Water Cooler Conversations

Aha! Moment Monday

With this growing blend of human intelligence and artificial intelligence in the workplace, I’m wondering if H.R. departments are going to change their name.  It’s become apparent that these complementary workforces need governance and support but will they be combined?  Or will they be two departments – H.I. and A.I. – the first of which would require that upon entering the cafeteria you’d have to press a security button that says, “I am not a robot”?

A.I. is artfully integrated into everything from manufacturing to service and we’re just getting started.
* The auto-fill sentences on your text messages – A.I.
* Google assistant, Alexa, Bixby and Siri – A.I.
* Auto-emails from your bank suggesting fraudulent activity on your account – A.I.
* The “live chat” options on websites – A.I.  (I think this one is misleading unless you believe “live” and “real time” are interchangeable).
* Smart cars, drones, social media ads – A.I. monitoring you, creating behavior algorithms, and anticipating your preferences and moves

No longer do we keep phone numbers in our memory, afford ourselves a minute to recall a music artist from our teens, spell anything correctly on our own or do simple math. Technology has made it so easy to access our data base, find just about anyone, compose accurate communication pieces and calculate countless solutions in seconds.  Cool – we’re super efficient without having to think beyond which button to push.  But there’s a fine line between incorporating technology to serve us vs. surrendering to technology and allowing it to control us.

Now, it’s in our D.N.A. to want to grow and expand so developing A.I. to make us more efficient, productive and our lives easier is natural but can replacing a caregiver or pet with an emotionless (though perfectly matched) bot be considered progress for the human race?
As we strive for perfection might we actually be suffocating our human expression by allowing A.I. to breathe for us?

Aha! ~ “Do not let the roles you play in life make you forget that you are human.”  ~ Roy T. Bennett

Technology accelerates life and learning, affords us tools of efficiency and connects us to people, information and villages thousands of miles from our own.  But as humans we can choose to express ourselves through technology or lose ourselves to it.

Can we make it okay to sometimes close the door to technology and be our silly, imperfect, emotional, caring, inspiring, challenging, funny, frustrating, growing selves … to celebrate the human spirit and not try and perfect it?

What if we called them “human breaks”?

 

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