I've learned that ego is a defence mechanism: its aim is to protect us from (perceived) threats we don't want to confront. It's nevertheless unhelpful when an emerging, highly disruptive technology like AI/GPT comes along. It can trigger denial, cynicism, arrogance, resistance, and many other feelings/fears, all of which prevent curiosity, experimentation, learning, growth, and development. Of course one can have any number of totally warranted reservations, scepticism, love/hate relationship to this weird yet insanely powerful technology. I'm both excited about AI's potential, and terrified (as a human being) of what it might (will?) do to us as a society. But putting my head in the sand will not stop the arms race, and it will not stop employers from increasingly wanting/hiring staff who can use AI tools, no matter if it's for EU jobs, lobbyists, NGO activists, diplomats, corporate managers, communicators, or anything in between. There was a nice book I read many years ago, the title of which I still remember: "Feel the fear, and do it anyway."
**This was originally posted on Andras Baneth's LinkedIn account.
