Information technology businessman working on computer in office for digital applications, software … [+]
There is a fundamental question in the pursuit of new AI capabilities – do people want robots to take over certain domains, or not?
It’s all well and good for robots to pick up trash, unless you’re a garbage collector who wants a paycheck. Ditto for tedious paralegal tasks, or data entry, or even coding, or anything any of us do for a living. In other words, automation is exciting and liberating, unless it cheats us out of our livelihoods.
The tension between technological progress and human value in the workplace is reaching a critical point. While previous industrial revolutions largely reshaped manual labor, today’s AI revolution is targeting cognitive tasks we once thought were uniquely human. This shift fundamentally challenges the way we think about human work, skills, and purpose.
In a recent TED talk, Tejas Kulkarni brought up some of this conflicted feeling as he talked about the next wave of AI advancement. “Who would have thought that after millions of years of evolution we would end up spending a large part of our day in front of computer screens?” he asked rhetorically, noting how many of us spend the work week doing digital tasks. “No one really likes to do that.”
He suggested that we can relax about automation. “I’m going to paint a story of why this is the right thing for humanity,” he said, while admitting that this is all really, in his words, a double-edged sword, adding: “It’s going to happen. anyway.”
The scope of change ahead is staggering. Video games that currently take hundreds of people and years to create could be largely automated by the end of this decade. Engineers can simulate complex aircraft engines and entire factories through AI, potentially replacing what traditionally takes a decade of professional learning to master. These aren’t just improvements in efficiency—they represent a fundamental shift in how we acquire and apply expertise.
Human students as a prototype
The way to understanding this future may lie in something as simple as teaching a child to write. Kulkarni recounted his experience watching his daughter trace letters along dotted lines, observing how young students work through imitation toward mastery. “Creativity starts at a very early age,” he noted. “If you just let kids explore and have fun, they’ll take the simplest tools and become creative. … Creativity is fundamentally about tools and how you use tools, and that’s the ability that agents will own.”
This simple observation about learning and creativity points to a deeper truth about human-computer interaction. As he explains, it’s a continuous loop of input and response: data enters the computer, software processes it, updates occur based on the direction, and the output appears on the screen. We observe, decide what to do next, and the cycle continues.
What will it look like?
“The whole computing landscape is changing,” explained Kulkarni, pointing to new developments in AI. The future he envisions is one where a single person can coordinate a team of ten AI agents, accomplishing what currently takes a hundred people to accomplish. This multiplication of human capabilities through the help of AI raises profound questions about the future of work and human value.
The implications extend far beyond simple productivity gains. These systems will be able to handle increasingly complex tasks, from generating sophisticated physical simulations to synthesizing vast amounts of human knowledge. “We can actually start to really think about some of the basic building blocks, problems of biology, from first principles,” he suggested, “or have agents that call up the entire Internet and get all the human knowledge and make it accessible.”
The message is clear: we will delegate more and more of our current tasks to AI. “Embrace the agent,” he advised, while acknowledging the deeper challenge this presents: “There’s really no glory in doing a task if an agent or an assistant will do it better than you. It’s important to internalize and appreciate that the universe is mysterious and there are many things to work with.”
This philosophical turn shows the essence of our challenge. In a world where AI can outperform humans in an increasing range of tasks, we need to fundamentally rethink how we derive meaning and value from our work. The industrial revolution eventually led to shorter working days, weekend holidays and entirely new forms of employment. The AI revolution may require even more dramatic social innovation.
Forward transformation isn’t just about efficiency or productivity—it’s about the very nature of human contribution to an AI-augmented world. The universe may indeed be mysterious, but our response to this technological revolution will determine whether this mystery enriches or impoverishes the human experience. As we navigate this transition, we must ensure that our pursuit of technological capabilities does not come at the cost of human dignity and purpose.
The real test won’t be whether AI can take over certain fields – that seems increasingly inevitable. Instead, we should focus on how to reshape our social structures and our economic systems to ensure that technological progress serves human flourishing rather than diminishing it. Robots may come for our jobs, but how we adapt our notions of work, value, and human worth will determine whether this liberation from work becomes a crisis of purpose or a rebirth of human potential.
