Artificial Intelligence is Exposing Laziness

We're all secretly (or perhaps not so secretly) freaking out about the pending AI job apocalypse. There is more to write about on that subject, but I want to focus on something I have noticed lately as Artificial Intelligence (AI) adoption grows: the exposure of people who try to avoid work.

The promise of AI is that it will help us do more work, be more productive, and free us from drudgery. Plus, solve diseases, climate change, and take us to the moon! (Or, something like that.)

The reality is, it has made many people appear to be very busy and, in turn to expose how little real work they are doing. To quote a friend from a coffee meeting earlier this week:

AI is making smart people smarter, and dumb people dumber.

In the past month, I have:

• Been sent 30-page documents and been asked to read them, when there is no way the "author" read them
• Argued at length about how payment systems work, with "but Perplexity said" as an argument to my 20 years of experience
• Watched people trade Claude responses in a Slack channel
• Listened to someone repeatedly respond to my direction on where to find documentation, with "I'll ask Claude."

I have long subscribed to the theory that most people want to work less. There isn't anything wrong with that! I just think it's true. There are a few of us who love to work and want to work really hard. I think hard work is a big part of success, and I get a lot out of it personally. That's just me.

So, when along comes a tool that makes it easier not to think and look busy, it's very easy for the average person who wants to work less to, well, work less. It's harder to write something on your own than to use AI. It is, however, harder to write something good with AI than on your own.

I've been having a lot of fun with Pangram, an AI-detection company founded by my former Wallaby intern, Max. It scores everyone on my LinkedIn feed. (I'm sure it's not 100% accurate) My feed is 12% less human than average! 39% of posts are AI-generated. I don't want to read them. It's lazy. It's uninteresting.

I'm not an AI-hater. I am enjoying using AI to:

• conduct research
• audit spreadsheets
• write tools in code
• double-check work and analysis

Yes, I am using it to create. However, I am getting more done with it, and I do not inherently trust it. I would never use it to reply to an email. I wouldn't use it to write something I'm not going to read.

To be very judgmental, the people who have impressed me the least at work seem to use it the most for simple everyday tasks (like LinkedIn, email, or thinking). They are not using it to enhance or step up their capabilities. They are using it to replace their capabilities.

Will AI replace all the white-collar workers (especially consultants)? I don't know, and I hope not. However, it will replace people who a) don't seem to want to work in the first place and b) demonstrate how little value they add by outsourcing themselves to it.

As machines proliferate, we move from being enthralled to loving the old way. I often think of the sewing machine scene in 1971's Fiddler on the Roof: The tailor is thrilled to have a sewing machine. It's "twice as fast," makes "perfect clothes," and he promises "no more handmade clothes."

Of course, the joke is, that even some 50-70 years later people were paying more for handmade clothes, which became a luxury over poorly made, machine-sewn garments.

For me, I'm excited to accomplish things that were out of reach and enhance what I make the old-fashioned way by hand.