Before the invention of the elevator, not many buildings were more than five stories high.
It was just too much work to walk up all those stairs. The elevator gave us much more than an easy way to move between floors. The elevator prompted new ways to think about architecture, about engineering – even about cities.
In some ways, artificial intelligence is an elevator for knowledge work. But instead of using that elevator to rethink and redesign work – to build an entirely new architecture – we’re fixated on using it to move from the ground floor to the fifth floor really, really fast.
While the term ‘artificial intelligence’ has been with us since at least 1956, it’s only with the public launch of ChatGPT that organizations and individuals have seen its potential for knowledge work. If AI can help knowledge workers eliminate significant amounts of busy work, workers could repurpose that time to do work that is more innovative, meaningful, and conducive to human flourishing.
That’s the dream. But mostly, it’s not happening...
