Culture, humor, creativity… managing between autonomy and spontaneity
In 2020, according to a report by the European Commission, 67% of Europeans had a positive perception of the use of digital technologies, including artificial intelligence, to improve the safety and security of workers. At the time, there was no question of ChatGPT and other AI chatbots.
Five years later, the world of intelligence has taken on a Pantagruelian dimension. Panta what? I doubt that the character of Rabelais is frequently cited by regenerative intelligence, which will prefer to make itself understandable to the greatest number of people and will confine itself to more accessible adjectives. However, I remain convinced that our culture, the knowledge we have accumulated during our studies and far beyond, gives us a special dimension that shapes our personality and makes us… interesting, singular, how to put it… human!
Our culture also influences the expectations we have of AI. “How Culture Shapes What People Want from AI” (source: https://hai.stanford.edu/news/how-culture-shapes-what-people-want-ai) sheds light on this subject and explains that artificial intelligence on the one hand and our human cultures on the other are not two monolithic blocks, but that the interaction between the two is constantly influencing and reshaping them.
The cultural baggage that we manage to assemble during our entire life, through our readings, the exhibitions and performances we attend, etc., never ceases to nourish our independent sense of reflection. An Interim Manager must be equipped with these cultural skills that will inspire them during their missions. Empathy, sensitivity, emotion: these human values nourish us spontaneously in complex moments such as management meetings where important choices are necessary. The dilemma is a phenomenon that is widely explored in literature. Shakespeare made extensive use of it in his plays. In the middle of a meeting room, it is better to give the impression that, when faced with a dilemma, you can support your preference independently rather than by typing at full speed on your keyboard to get the appropriate response from AI.
Even our worst dad jokes are funnier!
Admit it: if you’re already used to talking to a chatbot, you can’t always resist the urge to challenge it, to ask it anything to see, to address it as a real human being, to scold it, to provoke it, and to have fun with its ability to keep its cool. But your personal sense of humor, which is good to use, without abusing it, in the corporate world to lighten the atmosphere, for example, still seems to be largely the prerogative of human beings today, and so much the better. For now, AI chatbots lack a sense of humor. If they sometimes show it, it’s almost absurd to say it, but it’s often… unbeknownst to them and therefore unintentional and because their mistakes, phrasing, or exaggerated politeness end up making us laugh.
Your creativity remains unique!
Now let’s imagine a works council. You are an Interim Manager and at your side, five people have taken their place at the table. Imagine them: give them a preferred age, gender, nationality, mode of transport, and holiday destination. Do they have children? In which companies did they work before? Well, we can stop there. Now you ask a chatbot to imagine five different people at a works council. With a certainty that is close to 100%, I can tell you that AI will never draw up exactly the same profiles as you have imagined. You may not know it, but your creativity is so… unique!
Surprisingly human
Beyond the fact that your humor, your culture, your creativity, and many other profoundly human qualities bring you as an asset in the spontaneity of the moment, I have no doubt that their neurological impact and the release of beneficial hormones that these assets induce play a fundamental role in our well-being, our self-confidence, our motivation. No doubt neuroscience will study the absence of these physiological phenomena on AI addicts in the near future.
Let’s keep our hand, let’s show ourselves capable of accepting the presence of AI with common sense, curiosity, and a form of independence. Humans have not finished surprising us, believe me!
