Our ability to create has exploded, but our ability to feel meaning in what we create has collapsed. Billionaires tell us AI will free us from work, but they still show up to the office. That’s the clue we’re ignoring. The danger isn’t job loss, it’s loss of purpose.

“Is technology evil?” a podcast host asked me recently. I paused. Not once, but every time they asked. Because the answer isn’t straightforward — it’s layered, nuanced, and deeply contextual. I love technology. I love the possibility of it all. But I’m uncomfortable with the business models that reward what I’ve come

The online world amplifies a deep human paradox: we want to fit in and stand out at the same time. Algorithms reward polish, not practice. Visibility, not depth. The antidote is in reclaiming the messy middle where originality is formed, and letting technology be collaborators, not replacements.

Our relationship with AI has all the markers of a cinematic love story: fascination, dependency, and a creeping loss of self. Like the Joker and Harley Quinn, we think we’re in control — clever enough to play with chaos without being consumed by it. But love stories built on illusion always end the same way.

🤖 Who’s influencing who? We like to think of AI as our co-pilot. But its most powerful move isn't that it’s taking over. It’s that it’s making us think its ideas were ours all along. In a recent (and ethically questionable) study, researchers injected AI-generated comments into Reddit threads to see if they could change people’s opinions. They did. The AI didn’t argue harder. It just mirrored tone, tapped emotional resonance, and let source ambiguity do the rest. This isn’t just persuasion. It’s persuasion that feels like your own reflection.

In 1965, Time magazine declared that by 2000, Americans would work just 20 hours a week, retiring at 50 with ‘a guaranteed income for life.’ “Many scientists hope that in time the computer will allow man to return to the Hellenic concept of leisure, in which the Greeks had time to cultivate their minds and improve their environment while slaves did all the labor,” the article continued. The slaves, in modern Hellenism, would be the computers. Yet here we are, a quarter century after that prediction, grinding through intense work weeks while doomscrolling through other people’s vacations and wellness rituals. Here’s the uncomfortable truth: Every time technology offers to save us time, we invent new ways to stay busy . Email was supposed to kill paperwork. Instead, we send 300 billion emails a year. Slack was supposed to kill email. Instead, we send 1.5bn messages per week. History is littered with predictions about technology freeing us from work: 💡Aristotle (350 BCE): ‘ If every tool could perform its own work, slavery would be unnecessary .’ 💡John Maynard Keynes (1930): ‘ Our grandchildren will work three hours a day .’ 💡 Fei-Fei Li, Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University (2020s): ‘ I imagine a world in which AI is going to make us work more productively, live longer, and have cleaner energy .’ These visionaries agreed on one thing: Technology should serve humans. But history shows we’d rather serve technology. With every technological leap forward we tend to follow Amara’s Law : we overestimate liberation, underestimate adaptation. We don’t eliminate work; we upgrade it.

Creativity doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It’s built on cognitive skills like working memory, critical thinking, and deep focus. It’s the mental exercise of connecting ideas, questioning assumptions, and immersing ourselves in problems to come up with novel solutions. But when we let AI handle these cognitive tasks — whether brainstorming, writing, or problem-solving — our brains lose the practice needed to maintain those essential skills.

Dublin Tech Summit: 29th May 2024 This thought-provoking session examines the evolving dynamics between AI technology and human interaction. From UNICEF's innovative approaches to Humalogy's human-centric solutions, gain insights into how AI is reshaping our world. With perspectives from Logitech's CIO, delve into the opportunities and challenges presented by AI integration.