Driving Change by Combining Artificial Intelligence with Real Wisdom

I found this Buddha head in the weeds when we moved into our house in Hopewell Junction, New York

For almost 100 years we have seen Information Communication Technology emerge to help us work with data and information. And it’s been a revelation in What we can know with technology’s help. But information alone doesn't make the world go 'round.

Some 30 years ago, when an IBM computer beat the world‘s chest champion, Gary Kasparov, we woke up to a whole new world. In 2011, IBM‘s Watson won the television show Jeopardy! Almost 10 years ago, Google‘s DeepMind mastered chess and Go and Shogi - a Japanese board game - by playing the game over and over by itself rather than relying on humans to teach it. It became a master of the game.

I first read about AI's potential to make a huge chunk of white collar jobs disappear from an Oxford University study published in 2013. And, I’ve spent more than 10 years warning my students that they’ve got to be able to do more than just memorize what other people have said and done.

The truth is that even the AI gurus don’t fully understand how AI works. Therefore, neither can they fully anticipate what the technology can do. Indeed, there are few humans who are truly adept at connecting the dots between the information that’s available on the Internet as artificial intelligence is. But, beyond the What of the world, lies How we can put that information to work with others. And, part of doing that effectively requires us to understand why we do what we do and what it can mean to all those around us. That's where the need for human wisdom comes in.

While AI is great at the What’s of the world, I would argue that humans - at least so far - are better at working with others and making that effort meaningful. More than ever, understanding the Why’s of the world is critical. There’s more than just data and information and knowledge; there’s the wisdom necessary to understand why it’s important. For the next generation to learn what it needs to know to successfully compete in an AI-infused world requires them to study more than just science and math and technology. It requires them to explore their own humanity and the humanity of those with whom they’ll work. Happily, the arts and humanities can help them embody that kind of wisdom. But how can we help them do that in an increasingly uncertain world?!

What do I have to offer to this discussion? I've spent my whole life studying a broad range of disciplines to figure out how to communicate well and how to coach others to do the same. For myself,  I had no choice. My father was a banker and my mother was an artist, and so I had to learn to speak both languages. I've spent a quarter century in just about every kind of finance you can imagine. And I've also spent many years on stage, as a classically-trained lieder singer and actor. More than 15 years ago, I became a business communication professor - for most of that as a full-time professor at NYU's Stern School of Business. I've spent most of that time translating between those worlds to help my students and clients communicate with all of their humanity - not just as a science but as an art. The culmination of that work was a course that I co-created with Dr. Nisha Sajnani from the Steinhardt school at NYU, which is called Improvisation for Effective Leadership.

We’ve co-taught that course since 2020. The class worked to free MBA students from the habits that have held them back as potential leaders. Part of that effort was to become fully present, open, aware, and engaged with each other, all without the pressures of having to be just smart. They got to reclaim their childhood ability to play with purpose drawing on a wide range of arts from theater to music and visual arts to movement. An important part of the class’s success has been the text that we used, which was written by Stanford professor emeritus Patricia Madsen.

Professor Madsen wrote Improv Wisdom as a culmination of her more than 40 years running Stanford's theater program. She was among the first to use improv to draw out business creativity along with others such as Keith Johnstone. Her unique contribution to the field was to combine her broad and deep understanding of theater with the wisdom she absorbed from her early study in Japan. It was there that she heard echoes of improv's 'Yes, and' essence from Buddhism's non-attachment. Another such echo emerged from Taoism and its openness to what can emerge in the moment. She also recognized that a Confucian rules-based society can help add structure to all that spontaneity.  

No one really knows how AI will change our world. But, by seeking wisdom - the Why of our lives -we'll be better able to put our unique value proposition to work in the new world. While AI's mastery of human knowledge from the past is a wonderful thing, it will need us to discover, explore and develop our uniquely creative human genius in order to move the world in a mutually beneficial direction, for both us and ... it!