For the last few decades, we’ve understood that we are living in a new age, moving further and faster from the industrial era than ever before. Today, we stand on the brink of a technological revolution that will fundamentally alter the way we live, work and relate to one another. As AI progresses at speed, we are already seeing glimmers of artificial general intelligence (AGI). Perhaps we are entering a new phase in human history as Sam Altman, CEO of Open AI, argued.

I have long advocated for Natural Intelligence™, our unique abilities as humans, interacting with the laws of nature. In my first book, Thinking into Character, I outlined several tools that are unique to the human mind: reason, memory, intuition, will, perception and imagination. The godfather of AI, Professor Geoffrey Hinton, has said that, probably within the next 20 years, we will develop AI's that are smarter than people. So, as AI advances at incredible speed, which of these tools are still uniquely human? AI’s capacity to learn is astounding; large language models (LLMs) can gather data in seconds and share it with other sub models in an instant. Our ability to acquire knowledge as humans can’t compare and our capacity to transmit our knowledge to others is hugely inefficient. This is broadly our current education system: a system designed for the industrial revolution, not the tech revolution. Most of us are aware of generative AI, but AI is already capable of much more. The OpenAI o1 model launched in 2024 scored 83% on the International Mathematical Olympiad qualifying exam, showing creativity and deep reasoning skills.

Our role in this new world

Are reason, memory, intuition, will, perception and imagination now only discovered and used by humans? Have LLMs already surpassed our memory? Hinton believes that they are a new kind of intelligence: a digital intelligence that is able to learn new tasks extremely quickly. As AI progresses, which other human tools will AGI, digital intelligence and, eventually, artificial superintelligence (ASI) render obsolete? We humans need to work out what our purpose is in this new world.

Open to learning

There is no point educating humans in what machines can make a far better job of – that is as nonsensical as digging the soil with our hands when we have a range of tools that are better suited to the task. The pace of growth is so great that we can’t know what we will need to learn in the future (although I’d wager that Physics will be useful still, the World Economic Forum suggests that soft skills like communication and integrity are crucial and I would add authenticity). There’s no question that being open to learning new skills will be essential; not learning isn’t a choice. Learning how to learn will be invaluable. Above all, we need to be flexible, responsive to developing any skills that might be needed, and embrace change.

Seeking out opportunities

AI is not only driving efficiency and productivity, it’s also creating opportunities for entirely new industries and innovations, things that we haven’t imagined before. Chamath Palihapitiya, Social Capital founder and CEO, compares the opportunities that LLMs present today to refrigeration and Coca Cola in the last century: in the same way as Coca Cola capitalised on one new invention (refrigeration) to create a business worth $106.45 billion, we need to find the opportunities that LLMs and AI are creating for new products and services. So far, we haven’t even scraped the surface of what AI is making possible. Perhaps a key purpose for humans in this new world is to seek out the opportunities that AI presents, especially those that improve life for us all.

Human 2.0

Even if we create artificial super intelligence, I believe that there is something unique about us humans that will never be surpassed. Look how far we have come over the 300,000 years of our existence, from art-making cave dwellers to the creators of cities and AI. Human evolution and adaptation will continue; we’ll be shaped by AI as AI is shaped by us. It will be a new world of humans living alongside machines, with machines and humans each contributing what they are best at. The importance of human relations is one area where humans will always lead. Our interactions with one another, the ability to form relationships and work together have made our greatest achievements as a species possible; every scientific discovery made, piece of architecture built, or symphony played are the result of this. Imagine what more we can achieve working together alongside AI. As Sejnowski wrote, AI’s evolution is at warp speed, but fastening our seatbelts may not be the best response.