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You are being lied to

What if I told you you're right where you're supposed to be? That you're already an expert?

It's hard to believe it when you are constantly being told that you're not enough. When you're being told you'll fall behind unless you get on board with the new status quo. When it seems like everyone is trying to sell you on needing to learn the latest, hottest skill, or adopt the newest, flashy tool, or buy a course that promises to make you the expert the industry needs in just a few weeks' time. When your role is eliminated because you did not have that supposed expertise.

Take it from someone who knows a thing or two about imposter syndrome: it's easy to give in to those voices, both inner and outer, that tell us we're not enough. That people will find out we're frauds. That we're not meant to be in the spaces we're occupying.

But you're already an expert.

Yes, you.

There will always be more to learn. This isn't about acting as if you already know everything or as if everyone (and I mean everyone) doesn't have something to teach you. It's about acknowledging your progress. Your dedication. Your unique, insightful perspective. You have something to add to the conversation. Your ideas matter. Your voice matters.

You are already an expert. And you will become an even greater one.

And that expertise is being taken from you, and then sold right back.

The great heist is long underway

Let me be clear - I am pro-tech. And I am also pro-technology ethics and being critical and intentional about anything we consume or contribute to. This isn't fear mongering. It's well documented that the companies building AI/LLM tools are on a mission to consume the world's expertise and then become its sole provider.

Don't take my word for it - they've told us themselves. Sam Altman (CEO of OpenAI - provider of ChatGPT) sees a future "[...] where intelligence is a utility, like electricity, or water. And people buy it from [OpenAI], on a meter."

These companies are creating a gig version of every job to acquire bits of expertise as cheaply as possible and use them to train their models, turning these AI tools into experts on anything.

So let's recap.

You are the expert in a given field.

And these tools are trained using a combination of stolen data, cheaply-acquired gig work, and your own inputs whenever you use said tools.

And as we become increasingly dependent and focused on AI/LLMs, we are deskilling ourselves (i.e. losing our expertise) by relying on the knowledge being fed back to us by these tools; research is showing us that AI is ruining our skills.

"Reliance on artificial-intelligence tools degrades the abilities of physicians and software engineers, studies show.”

That is exactly the goal, like Altman said. These companies want to steal our expertise until we have to buy intelligence like electricity.

Because we are already experts. And that's why they're selling us the narrative that we have AI companions at our fingertips to help us with anything. And why they're in such a rush to take our expertise from us to make their tools useful. And then try to sell it right back.

How we fight back

So what can we do about all of this?

Musician Adam Neely has a fantastic video on AI, ethics, and everything in between that I recommend watching. In it, he highlights thinking from folks such as sociologist Dr. Tressie McMillan Cottom (which I also highly recommend checking out) that seek to offer some of the common responses to this emerging technology:

  1. To protect ourselves (the experts), we must embrace AI to not become obsolete. To survive, we must adopt generative AI workflows. And we need to adopt them right now. We have no option but to bend the knee, and just accept it.
  2. We can refuse the post-human future that tech oligarchs are trying to convince us is inevitable and the ultimate goal of technology.

Dr. Cottom describes this second response in more detail:

"The proposal for a post-human future is one where there will be human beings [but] who will just be treated inhumanely. [...] Refusing is the more hopeful, expansive vision of the future, than the one that is telling us that the future is already settled and decided."

Besides "refuse", I would even offer "challenge" or "critically question" this vision of the future. Not just challenging the future being sold to us and the literal tools being forced down our throats, but taking the values of these tech companies and changing them. As Neely suggests, what if we focused on values like:

Service

Serve a community in the pursuit of art, craft, creating, etc. In the act of changing things for the better.

Patience

In contrast to the speed and impatience touted by these companies. We must have patience, diligence, and moderation. Silicon Valley's motto of "move fast and break things" is long outdated (was it ever relevant?). Intention, intuition, and patience sets human-made creations apart from the rest.

Craft

Dedicate yourself to the pursuit of craft. Craft takes time. Craft takes collaboration, exchange of knowledge, and struggle.

Beauty

Techno-capitalists love to highlight that these tools allow people to have fun. But they then describe fun as "how we get meaningful consumption experiences". That is the coldest, most devoid of life approach to creating. Instead, what if we focused on beauty? In intention? Soul? Life? Accomplishment? Collaboration? Joy, and all kinds of emotions?

Are we becoming overly reliant on these technologies? When we are jamming tools into situations where they do more harm then good, where they don't belong? Especially if it means deskilling ourselves? And, as a friend of mine described, when it means you are "self-architecting your own destruction"?

We need to focus on our craft. The human craft. On our expertise.

And we must be critical about the ways in which we consume and contribute to these systems. Especially those that have had billions upon billions of dollars invested into them - into something that's designed to steal from our expertise, then sell it back to us and use our work to replace other people. These companies openly admit that their business cannot function without theft.

Real craft, real expertise - that will be the true value we can offer, more than ever. Embrace and acknowledge your own expertise, skills, and craft, in its ever-maturing nature. You are equipped with passion and curiosity, and that's all you need to keep moving.

You are an expert.

Now go continue to hone your craft.

🎷Thank you so much for reading! Got a question for me? A burning topic on your mind? Thoughts on this article? I would love to make this a conversation. Comment below or write me at howkind@mateusdasilva.com :-)