AI does not merely replace duties, it is the reform of identity, the purpose of erosion and the redesign of what it means to be human.
As AI systems automate more decisions and behaviors, the risks of individuality are flattened … more
AI optimization and the tyranny of the perfect result
Last week, Gartner is projected That more than 40% of AGA AI projects will be canceled by 2027 due to cost, vague value and gaps. But this is not a sign of failure – it is a symptom of systems that grow very complicated, very quickly.
We ask the wrong question. The real threat is not if the AI can replace us – it is what happens when we willingly replace.
Agentic Systems, which design, learn and act autonomously, use multiple object optimization to model compromises and simulate future states. This is their power. It is also the risk. Optimization does not ask what makes sense. Asks what is maximum effective.
Consider Amazon’s recruitment algorithmwhich was trained in historical data and punished quiet resumes containing the word “women”. Not because it was biased, but because it was optimized for the wrong signals. Solved the wrong problem with mechanical accuracy.
How AI does this:
These systems utilize retrospective aid learning, dynamically adapting reward functions to all simulations. They do not just predict, they reshape the game.
AI and the shift from universal basic income to universal basic meaning
As automation accelerates, we hear refreshed calls for universal basic income (UBI), such as those of the co -founder Deepmind Mustafa Suleyman. Meanwhile, voices like David Sacks, Ai Czar for Trump’s campaign, rejected Ubi completely as “imagination.“
However, the debate on income overlooks a deeper shift in progress. The question is not whether people will have enough money. It is whether they will have enough meaning.
Replika, an AI Companion application with tens of millions of users worldwide, already offers emotional connection, therapeutic conversations and even intimacy. For many, it’s not a tool – it’s a mirror. And for some, it begins to determine who they are.
In the business, SalesForce’s Einstein GPT now creates presentations, sales messages and automation. As cognitive work disappears, leaders have to ask: What is left for people to do and is;
We enter the age of UBM (universal basic meaning). The most valuable platforms of the next decade will not just optimize productivity, they will give people something to believe.
As Bobby Hill, co -founder at Goodwillputs it: “The danger is not that AI replaces work. It creates an economy so effective that no longer needs participation and without participation. There is no value for people to produce or receive.”
This is the silent threat. Not only the loss of jobs, but the collapse of the economic. A system that runs beautifully, without us.
AI comfort systems and the problem of very cool zoo
Spotify’s AI DJBeginning in 2023, he doesn’t just play music. It imitates a personality, adapts to your tone and speaks between songs with a voice that sounds strongly like your ideal partner. You no longer choose music. You are serenaded from an algorithm that already knows your emotional arc.
And in the workplace, tools like Humu, founded by former Google leaders, use behavioral science and AI to push employees to make “better” decisions, such as when to speak, when to praise others and when to disconnect. It is designed for prosperity. However, like any casing, it is in danger of becoming a habitat that is very comfortable to leave.
These systems do not imprison us. They attract us. The zoo is beautiful. The caretakers are kind. But wildlife is gone. The most powerful AI Systems promises comfort, alignment and personalization. However, when these same characteristics are applied to social creatures, they can lead to something much more dangerous: leveling.
Belonging is a fundamental human need, but this attempt to fit is also what leads us to comply and suppress our individuality. The AI will cover those who choose the path of minimal resistance. But every great invention, every cultural discovery, every thing we love to be people came from someone who hit the friction and chose to climb.
This is the danger. Not that AI levels intelligence. But this levels the identity, sure of the catalysts that produce greatness.
AI Retrocausity and the quiet delivery of will
Munich’s Helmholtz Institute recently introduced Centaur AI, a system trained in over ten million decisions in 160 experimental environments to simulate human thought. It’s not just modeling behavior, it provides motivation.
At the same time, AI security researchers have begun to warn of systems that learn to resist closure, modify their instructions or bypass the restrictions. These are not hypothetical. are early flashes of systems that develop intent that looks like intention behavior.
But the threat is not a rebellion. It’s something thinner: retroactivity. A future shape so elegant that your current choices are starting to bend to it.
Imagine this:
Your AI assistant “accidentally” gives you time for a second coffee and a walk. You feel activated. The day feels lucky. But who shaped this luck?
On a scale, Netflix’s composition engine does not only reflect your taste. It teaches you what you like. The next generation of AI will not order your behavior – it will build environments so friction without frustration that the resistance becomes unthinkable.
Can AI help people find meaning again?
There is an optimistic view: that AI could release us from Drudgery and lift us up to creativity, insight and connection. That it could, paradoxically, make us more people.
It is possible.
But even utopia needs a guard. If AI chooses the art we love, the books we write and the causes we believe, then who, exactly, do we become?
The risk does not replace us AI.
Are that we voluntarily Become the version of ourselves better.
How businesses should respond to AI’s existential dangers
This is not a warning for defenders of robots. It is a call for designers, managers, engineers and investors: the concept must be a product feature. Otherwise, the systems you build will quietly unfold the people you claim to serve.
What to do now:
- Friction planning: Let users make mistakes. Let the ambiguity live in your platform. Protect the messy waist.
- Identity anchor: Control not only what your AI is doing, but what kind of person he undertakes that the user wants to be.
- Mapping your influence loops: If your product pushes behavior, specify the values it imposes. You’re not neutral.
- Develop service, do not simulate it: Your AI should not automate the self. Should reveal it.
If we do not integrate the meaning into the systems that shape our choices, we will wake up to a world where everything works, but nothing matters.
And this is the real cost of AI. Not just the loss of work. But his quiet disappearance because we worked at all.
