Artificial Intelligence and Valuable Inefficiency
“I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear.”
AI is going to take your job.
AI cannot make an accurate map of Europe.
AI is going to level up your skills.
AI said I should quit my job.
AI saved my relationship.
AI lied to me.
I've seen all of these in one form or another.
I should get my bias out of the way. I am skeptical of artificial intelligence. This idea may color some of my thoughts to come. I know, a wild take! It really boils down to my thoughts on something I believe should not be that controversial:
Sometimes inefficiency is good.
If you’ve talked with me about leadership in the last year, you’ve probably heard me say that I believe all of leadership can be summed up in a care for others. If you care for people, you’ll have challenging conversations, you’ll seek clarity, you’ll make sacrifices, you’ll work to build trust.
I don’t think this is a revolutionary idea.
Still, when we look to leaders, in terms of positional authority, few provide the moral, ethical, or virtuous fortitude to live in the tension between what it looks like to stand up for truth, justice, and love.
Leaders lack synergy between their personal lives, their work lives, and their online personas. We package our lives into different compartments. Virtue only applies to a sliver of the pie when it’s useful, when it earns us brownie points, and when it’s easy.
That isn’t virtue.
One thing I do believe about technology, artificial intelligence, is that it’s coming quickly. Actually, it’s already here. So, how can we expect humans to steward artificial intelligence well without virtue? We no longer value virtue. We do not pursue it in our institutions. We do not teach it from a young age.
Virtue is not always practical in times of efficiency. Of course, neither are people.
As a Christian, I believe in the virtues of Christianity. The public witness of Christians in the news is difficult to lift up at the moment. However, I do not look to those individuals as the model or even an ideal. It’s foolish to do so.
The “virtue” of the moment, which has plagued the church and business for decades, is growth. Yet, what is growth without health? The culture of business leadership infected Christian thought years ago.
Churches are not companies. Growth is not the highest good of the church. Growth is not the measure of church health. Yet, growth makes us feel good. Growth makes us feel successful. Sometimes growth is just another word for greed.
We’ve struggled to inoculate against the disease.
Good leaders are not necessarily good Christians. Good Christians are not necessarily good leaders. Both can be, but these categories do not offer the universal overlap that many proffer.
One thing is for sure.
Both leaders and Christians should seek the flourishing of the people around them.
It may not lead to growth.
It may not be efficient.
Yet, paradoxically, it will.
Artificial intelligence will not help us do that. From a technical perspective, it could. Sure, it can help us craft a perfect response on paper. It might anticipate potential pitfalls or obstacles.
Are those innovations efficient? Yes.
Are they useful to the human experience? I'm not so sure.
There's another overlap between leadership and faith that I failed to mention, something that ties them together.
Both require a person to learn how to manage inefficiency.
What does that mean?
Most simply, both of these categories rely on relationships with people.
Relationships are often inefficient.
People will let you down. People will hurt you. People will slow down the train that is rolling ahead in your mind. They get in the way. They ask questions that you don't have answers for. They are stubborn. They will mess up.
We must ask ourselves what inefficiencies are worth keeping.
What inefficiencies are you willing to live with as you move through life with others?
Can inefficiency actually benefit your relationships?
Our culture is infected by a belief that people, things, and experiences are only valuable concerning their usefulness.
Exercise is good because it will make you healthy, physically and mentally. Friendship is a means to an end for a more meaningful life. Hugging someone for a certain amount of time will release a hormone that has a beneficial effect. Technology will open the door to achievement, innovation, and newness.
These are not bad things.
But, there is no beauty left in a life focused on continual measurement, a life of perpetual efficiency.
You don't have to turn your hobbies and interests into a side hustle. You don't have to measure every meal to optimize your health. You don't have to perfectly focus on every muscle group to maximize your strength capabilities.
We've slowly tricked ourselves into believing efficiency is the road to happiness when we're really just glad we're in control.
Everything around us feels like it's falling apart, so these are the areas of my life I can manage. I can be the master of my life that way. As Christians, we are called to fight this tendency, to surrender control and embrace the inefficiency that comes from a life of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These characteristics are not ends unto themselves but manifestations of a life that is not our own but devoted to the purposes of something more, someone more.
Inefficiency is good because it means you successfully embraced the humanity around you. You've recognized the essential feebleness of your being, that your self-determined pace cannot happen alone.
We are creating a tailor-made world for the opposite.
We're moving into a world where our inefficiency is going to be less inspirational because it is concerned with managing technology more than the complex dynamics of human relationships. Technology papers over the need to push through those complexities, because it will perform better than humans at many tasks. It might not now, but it will likely do so down the road.
We think that when we have more time due to efficiency, we'll use that time well. Are we good stewards of the time, rewards, and fruits of previous technological advancements?
Is it easier to let a machine craft a persuasive response than to push through a relationship that requires patience? Is it more profitable for technology to manage your schedule because that is not a deep work activity?
I don't have specific answers to these questions.
Yet, what would the world look like if some of the great people of history had this technology at their disposal?
Would their work have come to fruition? Would we have literature that plows the depths if boredom did not inspire Dostoevsky?
Would the meaning of life be less important than it is today if generations before us entertained themselves throughout history rather than sowing communities that supported the innovation we reap?
We are creating a world less concerned with human flourishing and more concerned with a copy-and-paste existence without personal taste, preference, or the joys of inefficient living.
These are generalizations, I know, but I continue to see less variety, which in turn creates less friction. We're lonely and we've been trained to expect a level of sameness that no one else can provide.
Efficiency is comforting. It's repetitive. It creates certain outcomes.
There is little fun in that experience. Mistakes give way to hope. They illustrate the story of change. They help us understand each other. Inefficiency is endearing because we see ourselves in our neighbors.
I do not pine for a life in the past. The 1950s, with its white picket fence and technology-less society, that many dream of is not coming back. Those visions of the past are trite and overlook much of the progress we've experienced. We should not wish for them. Yet, if progress is not rooted in virtue and the flourishing of the people in our lives, is it worth pursuing?
Is efficiency worth pursuing if it takes away the learning we need to live well with one another?
I'm not sure it is.
Can we value one another enough to accept our inefficiencies?
I sure hope you'll see more than mine when you see me.