AI and the Fallacy of Futureproofing

Humans love predictability. We obsess over weather forecasts, schedule recurring meetings, and contribute to 401Ks, all because we want to know what to expect next. It’s probably the fight-or-flight part of our brains doing its best to create a sense of calm in a volatile world.

It’s probably also at the base of our constant quest for futureproofing, the idea that we can somehow control our futures if we just take the right steps.

I heard the word “futureproof” a lot this week. I was at the incredible Marketing AI Conference (MAICON) in Cleveland, learning about the latest in AI, meeting professionals from across industries trying to bring it to their companies, and trying to figure out what AI means to me personally and professionally.

“Futureproof your company by investing in AI now.” “Futureproof your career by getting ahead of the curve in AI knowledge and experience.” Etc.

The implication is that by doing all of this, we’re inoculating ourselves from future professional turbulence; that, no matter where things go with AI, we will be among the select group of people and organizations that will succeed.

This is, of course, not true, regardless of how much we want it to be. After listening to wonderful keynotes, enjoying insightful presentations and having compelling one-on-one conversations, one thing became very clear to me: futureproofing is a fallacy.

It makes us all feel better to imagine that we’re doing the things that will make us endlessly employable. But it’s an illusion.

The world had lots of plans, then covid came and upended them all. The metaverse seemed poised to take over the virtual world, then ChatGPT came out. There are no guarantees.

But the big companies building AI know where this is all headed, right? They’re actively futureproofing the world today so we’ll all have a brighter future?

Not exactly.

In one of the MAICON panel discussions, Andy Sack, a venture capitalist who, along collaborator Adam Brotman, is interviewing some of the tech titans of the day (including Sam Altman from OpenAI) for a book about the future of AI, said something that probably shouldn’t have shocked me, but did: “There's a lot of money sloshing around [in AI investment]. You think there's a grand plan. There's not.”

Think about that for a second: Sam Altman and the other (very few) people in the world who are driving AI forward in a macro way don’t have a plan.

But wait, there's more. On the flight home last night I watched Oprah’s “AI and the Future of Us” special. Having just come from MAICON and seeing the unexpected release yesterday of OpenAI’s new “reasoning” LLM, I was energized and primed for some guidance and guarantees regarding the future of AI.

I didn’t find any.

Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, started by saying that “AI is going to have more impact than the personal computer, the phone, the internet…this is the biggest technical advance in my lifetime.”

But when asked by Oprah if he had any concerns about AI, the man who gave us Clippy responded, “I have significant fears about the risks. This is the first technology that’s happening faster than the insiders expected.”

Fantastic. I’ll just be over here rocking quietly in the corner and mumbling to myself.

This isn’t meant to be a cynical, nothing-is-worth-your-time-and-energy-because-we’re-all-gonna-die screed. Promise. After all, as someone who recently started my own marketing AI consultancy for higher ed and healthcare, I’ve already taken the red pill on AI.

But I have no illusions that I’ve made a decision that will futureproof me from future changes in technology, shifts in work culture or worldwide pandemics.

I’ve done what I think most of us try to do: the best we can given the vicissitudes of life.

So, while learning about, using and even starting a business related to AI isn’t a bulletproof protection against any change that may come our way, it is the act of raising a flag for personal and professional agency, for seeking something in life that makes us excited, fulfilled and a little terrified.

And maybe that’s a kind of futureproofing after all.