Are our fears and limiting beliefs responsible for our AI worries?

Are our worries around AI yet another expression of the insecurities and fears we bring to so much of our lives? 

Pinar Demirdag, co-founder and CEO of Cuebric, brought an interesting perspective on AI to this week's South Summit in Madrid. In her opinion, humans have an inferiority complex that needs to be overcome to control this new and very potent machine, because we can’t master what we fear. Thinking that we are replaceable makes us forget who we are and behave like machines.

She argued that AI is not only controllable, but that it can bring a reawakening and rediscovery of the human qualities that years of automation and focus on efficiency have pushed aside. Imagination that takes us beyond logic and complex emotions coexisting are the ways of humans, not machines. It becomes time to stop thinking like a machine and embrace what it means to be uniquely human. 

It made me wonder whether it gives each of us a new sense of urgency to tackle the thoughts that keep us small and fuel more concern than confidence. (You know the ones: "I can't" / "I shouldn't"/"I'm not good enough".) Is there a need to do this now, not just for ourselves and our wellbeing, but to confidently bring our joint humanity into the new, AI-powered future? 

Then again, self-reflection and working towards understanding and being yourself has never just been about you. Acting out of confidence and self-knowledge changes and improves how you relate to those around you and reduces friction. It allows society to benefit from your talents, which can remain hidden as long as you stay small. It lets you shine, and that brightness spreads. How each of us choose to show up affects what’s around us. 

I wonder if the advent of AI could allow us to fully flourish? Instead of being fearful, we could learn to be a bit more crazy, creative, open and vivid. We could choose to be less efficiency-driven while embracing our talent for critical thinking. If the machines do the logic and processing, we could stop machine-ing and start fully living. 

What’s your view? Which perspective on AI do you choose to take to heart? (And remember that you’re human, so if your points are complex or counterintuitive rather than rational and efficient, that’s only to be expected and celebrated.)