I was sitting at my desk watching an OpenAI livestream just before Halloween, approaching the 58-minute mark of a pretty unspectacular 62-minute broadcast. I'll confess I wasn't super dialed in by this point. Let's wrap it up, folks, I'm ready for lunch!
OpenAI Chief Scientist Jakub Pachocki had just finished talking about AI's role in causing mass layoffs when CEO Sam Altman suddenly turned to him and asked: "What do you think meaning will look like? What do you think the jobs of the future will look like? How do you think when AI automates a lot of the current things, how do you think we'll derive our fulfillment and spend our time?"
The question blindsided me. I'd not expected a billionaire CEO to ponder such a question. And it got my complete attention.
What do you think meaning will look like?
Pachocki paused for a long beat, then gave a thoughtful answer about the ability to understand so much more about the world and the incredible variety of knowledge that would become accessible as artificial intelligence becomes more advanced.
The livestream wrapped. My workday continued.
But I couldn't let it go. The question still haunts me -- sitting at stoplights in my car, on walks with my dog, mulling it over in the moments before falling asleep. I corner friends to ask what they think about purpose and meaning and fulfillment.
What will meaning look like in the age of AI?
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Meaning beyond AI automation
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