The Day All the AIs Stopped

This morning I saw a movie in my mind. Not a real movie, of course, but one of those dystopian ones. Imagine a day when all the AIs stop working, period. Complete stop, permanent stop, no way back, no smart workaround, no model hidden somewhere that saves us at the last minute. The first thing my mind thought was: FREEDOM.

Here it is, the way I saw it: an old pop-art comic, frame by frame.

In the movie, everyone keeps typing on the keyboard, no success. They type again, harder, like the keyboard is the problem, and meanwhile the phones are ringing, people are calling, asking if it works for you, if it is down for you too. Then, slowly, silence, because everyone is realizing the same thing: holy shit, the AI is not there.

Then I saw the programmers. People trying to understand the code that AI wrote for them, and once again, I am one of those. I can understand the code, maybe, but for sure not at the speed AI does it. Today there is no programmer who matches AI speed, and if someone says they do, trust me, they are not really using AI.

This is the crazy part: with AI you can create whatever you want now, period. I wrote before about using AI as a companion and not a magic replacement, because this is how I try to use it too (AI Won’t Replace You). But in the movie, when the companion disappears, companies start shouting at teams: hey, why are you so slow?

Then the Office Door Opens

In the movie, at some point, after all the typing and ringing and shouting, there is silence. You open the office door, you close it behind you, and you see the real world. Nature, the real power, the calm. Not exposed through tools, not with a dashboard, not with another agent that creates a summary of the summary.

The voice becomes low. There is no pressure for a moment, and you start becoming human again. You see real connections, happiness, things that do not need a prompt to exist. For one second there is no capitalism, no performance, no “AI-first approach”, just humans being humans.

And just to be clear, unfortunately this will never happen. Historically speaking, as humans, we have always run under capitalism, and I am not saying this as a communist. This is just how it works. We run because we need to make more money, and AI is now the best gasoline we ever found.

One easy algorithm is reduction in force. Fewer humans, with more pressure, can create the same stuff as more humans with less pressure, and I wrote about the human side of that before too (there is a better way to handle layoffs). This is not new; I started working at fourteen and now I am forty-one. Holy shit, I have seen the same nightmare again and again, just now everything is way faster.

The Contradictions Are Everywhere

We are all dragging ourselves into AI, or at least checking the LinkedIn profiles of the heroes doing AI. And now if you are a millionaire with AI, you are a poor guy, because the real ones are zillionaires. Zillionaires that, of course, teach you. I never saw a millionaire that needs to teach, but you know, maybe zillionaires are different.

Then companies start contradicting themselves in a beautiful way. Please do not write your CV using AI, because I need to evaluate you using AI. But hey, once you are inside my company, you need to embrace AI because you need to be faster. We created this weird theater where AI is cheating before the contract, and mandatory after the contract.

I am negative about this AI trend, not about AI. I have embraced AI since the beginning, because it is there, and because I can see what it does when you use it seriously. The question is not if this is the end of the world, because I am not sure. What I fear is simpler and sadder: for sure, it is the end of humanity.

People are becoming AI first, but in the bad meaning. More AI than colleague-human. With AI we are seeing the worst of our human side, especially in companies, because of course business owners want to run. I understand them, and who will stop AI? Nobody, not even Trump. Sorry, I mean: he already decided we do not need AI anymore, now we need S.I., Super Intelligence. Same thing, bigger name.

The Ego Leader Problem

What I see outside is a lot of ego leaders who maybe do not know a lot about AI. Maybe they do not even know how AI is used in real work. But they expect workers to use it fast, burn their brains, keep the speed, deliver more, and maybe without even a “thanks for burning your brain for my success.”

There is a quote I love, usually credited to Tony Gaskins: “If you don’t build your dream, someone else will hire you to help them build theirs.” Fine, this is normal. We all work for someone, or with someone, and we build dreams that are not always ours. But between humans, I believe we still need a form of respect.

Because if you hire me and give me a lot of pressure, how can I do a good job? Yes, I will use AI, because AI is one of the tools. I have two hands, one brain, and I even have my second brain with AI, we all know this. But the second brain does not remove the first one, and for sure it does not remove the human who is carrying the pressure.

What I Would Like AI to Do

The way I would love to use AI is simple. Remove repetitive things from humans. Take away the boring loops, the copy-paste, the mechanical stuff, the things that eat your day and leave you with no energy to be useful. Keep humans for what AI, at least at the moment, is not able to replicate: empathy.

AI can produce tokens. It can produce voice, tone, maybe even something that sounds kind. But not as a human. Empathy is not only the output, it is the cost of being there with another person.

And maybe I see the world in a bad way right now, I know. But every day I see more humans frustrated by AI than excited. Even the excited ones, and I am one of the first ones, are becoming a bit less excited, because it is hard to argue with people who have strong opinions about AI and do not understand it. They repeat the slogans, the speed, the future, the replacement, the magic.

Food for Thought, Maybe Therapy

I do not know. This was the movie I watched in my mind today, just food for thought, maybe a venting session. Maybe I will not need the therapist this time, who knows.

To the humans who are still humans and not angry, I am here. If you want to write to me, good. If you want to hire me, good. If you want to hug me, why not. AI is not yet able to hug me, and maybe this is still the biggest missing feature.