The fascinating thing hiding inside AI panic

Every technology panic has a fascinating thing hiding inside it, and it's almost never the technology.

When we sat down to record "What Will You Do When AI Can Do Everything?", we thought we were making an episode about machines. Around forty minutes in, we realised we were making an episode about purpose. It's the same conversation textile workers were having in 1811, just with better microphones.

The pattern goes like this: a tool arrives that does the thing you were proud of being good at. The first reaction is fear about money, which is fair. But the second, quieter reaction is a kind of identity vertigo. If the thing I'm good at can be done by something that isn't me, what was the 'good at' for?

Here's the bit we became obsessed with: hobbies survive this completely untouched. Nobody stops doing crosswords because computers can solve them instantly. The doing was always the point. Which suggests the fix for the vertigo isn't faster reskilling. It's noticing which parts of your life were already hobbies wearing a salary as a disguise.

Anyway. Ben thinks pigeons figured this out centuries ago. You'll have to listen to the episode for that one.