Okay, so hear me out. We’re all seeing AI get smarter, faster. It’s coding, it’s writing, it’s even diagnosing stuff. But what happens when we get to Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) – AI that can do pretty much any intellectual task a human can? It’s a wild thought, right? What does that mean for our sense of purpose, especially when it comes to our jobs?
Think about doctors, teachers, scientists. A huge part of their identity, and the meaning they derive from their lives, comes from mastering complex skills, solving problems, and contributing something valuable. If AGI can instantly access and process all medical knowledge, teach any subject with perfect clarity, or run groundbreaking scientific experiments faster than any human team, where does that leave us?
It’s easy to panic and think, ‘Are we all just going to be… useless?’ But I’m not convinced it’s that simple. Historically, technology has changed jobs, but it hasn’t eliminated the human need to contribute. Remember when automation hit factories? It changed the nature of work, but people found new roles, new skills.
But this feels different. AGI isn’t just automating a task; it’s potentially automating intelligence itself. This could fundamentally shift what we value about human effort. Maybe the struggle, the process of learning, failing, and overcoming challenges is where a lot of our meaning comes from. If AGI removes that struggle, does it also remove a piece of our humanity?
Consider this: what if AGI frees us from the necessity of work for survival? Could that actually lead to a richer human experience? Instead of working to live, we might live to explore, create, connect, or simply be. Our purpose might shift from doing a job to being human, exploring our creativity, our relationships, and our understanding of the world in ways we can’t even imagine now.
It’s a big question, and honestly, no one has a perfect answer. As someone deep in AI research, I see the incredible potential, but also the philosophical questions it forces us to confront. What do you guys think? How do you see your own purpose changing in a world where advanced AI is the norm? Let’s talk about it.