“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”
You might recognize these words as the opening lines from Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities. But if Dickens were alive today, he might have penned them to describe the dueling narratives about artificial intelligence.
Since ChatGPT burst onto the scene in November 2022, the Silicon Valley hype machine has been firing on all cylinders. If you believe the press, pundits, prognosticators, and technology product marketers, every innovation is groundbreaking. Every new release is revolutionary. If you take OpenAI’s Sam Altman at his word, his company is mere steps away from birthing an artificial general intelligence that rivals human brainpower in every conceivable pursuit. For high profile venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, it’s not enough for AI to be good; It must be a god, capable of “saving the world,” as he wrote in a recent tech-optimistic manifesto. It is indeed the best of times.
Even the downsides of the high-speed commercialization of AI – the job displacement, human replacement, organizational and industry-wide disruption – are part of the hype. For common office workers and senior business leaders, the message becomes, “If you’re not leaping ahead, you’re falling behind.” At a conference I attended recently, I listened as one Chief Marketing Officer boasted about his company’s massive investment in custom large language models, predicted that his brand would thrive as a result, and gleefully cautioned his competitors that they would become all but irrelevant by dragging their heels on AI. This man markets chocolate bars for a living…
It is the age of foolishness.
More recently though, a very different counter-narrative has emerged. Companies have begun to call into question whether their investment in AI will yield the results the tech companies promise. In a recent study by the Upwork Research Institute, 77% of office workers reported that generative AI tools have reduced their productivity and added to their workload – quite the opposite from the productivity and efficiency gains we’ve been led to expect.
Meanwhile, OpenAI may be on track to lose $5 billion this year, according to The Information. And investment giant Goldman Sachs – once bullish on generative AI’s potential for driving transformative growth – now questions whether the technology is too expensive and unreliable to ever deliver a positive return on investment.
Are we entering an AI winter of despair?
It’s hard to say whether the second narrative is any more truthful than the first. But for businesspeople charged with making sound, strategic decisions about when, where, and how to deploy in AI in their own organization, it just might be that neither is particularly helpful.
Perhaps it’s time for a new narrative.
The 1990s television series The X-Files brought together enthusiastic believer Fox Mulder and analytical skeptic Dana Scully to find a truth hidden somewhere between their opposite points of view. (And yes, I appreciate that a sci-fi TV drama is a far cry from where I started, with a Dickens classic.) My point? When it comes to understanding AI, the truth is out there. It’s just not accurately reflected in the utopian or dystopian narratives that dominate too many discussions. It’s hidden somewhere in between.
And frankly, it’s your job, my job, all our jobs to find it.
It should come as no surprise that the World Economic Forum ranks critical thinking, analysis, and problem solving as essential skills for the future of work. The prevailing narratives around AI—whether overwhelmingly positive or starkly negative—often fail to provide the nuanced understanding necessary for informed decision-making. The reality lies somewhere between utopia and dystopia, and it is within this grey area that business leaders must navigate. And the problem you’re looking to solve with AI must always be the North Star that lights your way.
If the new narrative – the true narrative – about AI is a hero’s journey, then AI itself is neither the protagonist nor the villain. It’s merely a tool, and like any tool it holds transformative potential when applied to the right task but severe limitations that must be acknowledged. Whether you’re a changemaker inside an organization or a consultant who influences clients, you should seek out and share the storyline that cuts right through the noise.
The future of AI isn’t foretold in the extremes of utopian dreams or dystopian fears. It’s shaped by the thoughtful, deliberate words and actions of those who dare to look beyond the narratives and embrace the complexities of this technological revolution. In doing so, we can usher in an era where AI serves as a tool for sustainable growth, innovation, and societal benefit—a truly balanced age of wisdom.
This article originally appeared in human Magazin.
