AI is Coming and Your Only Option is to Become an Artist

Are you prepared?

Imagine a toddler, lets call her Abigail. Abigail can drive cars, she can diagnose patients, she can even beat the best chess players in the world.

Abigail sounds scary, doesn’t she?

I am just getting started.

Abigail can do surgeries, she can do taxes, she can teach. Once she sees a face, she remembers it forever. She is an efficient cashier, receptionist, bartender and waitress.

Abigail will work for less than you.

She never gets tired, she does not need rest. She can perform the labor of 1000 men.

Abigail is not science fiction. Abigail is real. Abigail is AI.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) helps machines learn and adapt behavior to different environments. AI is already capable of performing most of the above tasks, some of them even better than humans.

But that is not the scary part.

The scary part is that Abigail is a toddler. AI is still in its infancy.

We are witnessing one of the greatest revolutions of human history. AI is going to change the nature of employment as we know it.

Research by Oxford University predicts 47% of existing jobs to disappear in the next 25 years. These include blue and white collar jobs.

Accountants, doctors, lawyers, teachers, bureaucrats, and financial analysts beware: your jobs are not safe.

According to The Economist, computers will be able to analyze and compare reams of data to make financial decisions or medical ones. There will be less of a chance of fraud or misdiagnosis, and the process will be more efficient.

If you look around you can see it.

The self-service counter at Walmart. Online education. TurboTax.

When was the last time you used a travel agent? Do they even exist anymore?

Not only is the concept of employment changing, the trend is irreversible. The mindset is this, “Other countries would use AI to gain a competitive advantage and therefore we must adopt it”. The AI arms race cannot be stopped.

That begs the question, what separates the 47% of the jobs that will disappear and the ones that are here to stay.

Art. Artists will survive.

Art is what we call it when a human being does something for the first time, something that might not work, in the service of connecting or leading someone else.

“It’s not art if the world (or at least a tiny portion of it) isn’t transformed in some way. And it’s not art if it’s not generous. And most of all, it’s not art if there’s no risk. The risk isn’t the risk of financial ruin (though that might be part of it). No, the risk is the risk of rejection. Of puzzlement. Of stasis. Art requires the artist to care, and to care enough to do something when he knows that it might not work. Today, in the face of the greatest revolution of our time, we are all artists. Or at least we all have the opportunity to be artists. The only thing holding us back is us. Aren’t you tired of pretending you can’t make a difference?”

~ The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly?

Architecture can touch us, it’s not just a roof.

A cop who talks to a scared 4 year old girl in a way that makes her feel safe is doing a form of art. It’s not in a playbook. You can’t do it the same way every time.

Economy of the future does not demand our analytical prowess or our diagnostic brain. Because machines will do it better than us. The future demands us to connect. To take risks and to do things that might not work. To become an artist.

A programmer writes code while an artist creates software that delights its users. That brings out joy. She created software that changes the people who uses it.

A nurse monitors her patients and gives medication. An artist gives hope when all hope is lost. She gives him courage.

A receptionist checks-in the people who walks through the door. An artist changes the person who walks into the office. She changes the person into someone who is more enthusiastic, someone who is more likely to tell their truth, more open to engagement.

“The painter in front of a blank canvas. The architect changing the rules of construction. The playwright who makes us cry. The doctor who cares enough to call. The detective who cracks a cold case. The diva with a new interpretation of a classic. The customer service rep who, despite the distance and the rush, makes an honest connection. The entrepreneur who dares to start without permission or authority. The middle manager who transforms the key meeting with a single comment. You?”

~ Seth Godin

Shoveling snow is hard work, we all know that. But just as hard is the emotional labor of connection.

Emotional labor is the labor that’s in demand today. Not the grueling work of toiling in the sun but the frightening work of facing our shadows.

It’s human nature to ask for guaranteed success, but emotional labor of art offers no guarantees.

Art does not have a playbook, there are no rules to follow. The entrepreneur who starts a new venture needs to create her own path. She cannot find it in business books, podcasts or television.

Art is scary because it might not work. Your boss might not see the potential of your brilliant idea. The audience might not clap. There might be crickets.

But what happens when we embrace the fear ?

It is thrilling. It is exciting. It gives us the opportunity to do what only humans can do. It gives us the opportunity to do the difficult work of connection. It gives us an opportunity to contribute.

Art does not demand you to change the world, it just needs you to change one human being.

“Strolling along the edge of the sea, a man catches sight of a young woman who appears to be engaged in a ritual dance. She stoops down, then straightens to her full height, casting her arm out in an arc. Drawing closer, he sees that the beach around her is littered with starfish, and she is throwing them one by one into the sea. He lightly mocks her: “There are stranded starfish as far as the eye can see, for miles up the beach. What difference can saving a few of them possibly make?” Smiling, she bends down and once more tosses a starfish out over the water, saying serenely, “It certainly makes a difference to this one.”

~The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life

We crave connection, we can’t get enough of it. Even in today’s hyper-connected world there is a scarcity of genuine connection.

Research shows that surgeons who spent more time engaging with their patients are less likely to be sued.

Surgeons who gets sued spends 15 minutes talking to their patients, on the other hand, artists spends 18.3 minutes actively listening to their patients.

They also found that there was no difference in the amount or quality of information these surgeons gave their patients. They didn’t provide more details about medication or the patient’s condition. The difference was entirely in how they talked to their patients.

Connection matters.

Not to avoid lawsuits, nor for the applause. It matters because to connect and to create is what it means to be human.

“Do not expect applause. Accept applause, sure, please do. But when you expect applause, when you do your work in order to get (and because of) applause, you have sold yourself short. When your work depends on something out of your control, you have given away part of your art. If your work is filled with the hope and longing for applause, it’s no longer your work — the dependence on approval in this moment has corrupted it, turned it into a process in which you are striving for ever more approval. If it’s finished, the applause, the thanks, the gratitude are something else. Something extra and not part of what you created. If you play a beautiful song for two people or a thousand, it’s the same song, and the amount of thanks you receive isn’t part of that song. The connection that comes after the art is appreciated lasts far longer than applause ever could and opens the door for you to work to create ever more connection, as opposed to seeking to repeat the evanescent thrill of an ovation. Everyone is lonely. Connect.”

~ The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly?

Internet has removed the barriers to create. There are no gatekeepers anymore. We don’t need permission.

I have no capital or resources. But it does not stop me from creating and connecting. Internet evens the field.

We live in the most hyper-connected generation in the human history but real connection is still difficult to find.

There is a giant opportunity for people who can offer real connection.

Time is running out for you to connect and to be generous to someone who really needs you.

Time is running out for you to become the person you’ve decided to be, to make the difference you seek to make, to produce the work you know you’re capable of.

Whatever you do, wherever you are, you have an opportunity to become an artist. To make a difference. To become irreplaceable when Abigail knocks at your door.

AI is coming and your only option is to become an artist.