As long as everyone has been telling their Ted Turner stories in the wake of his recent death, I thought I'd tell mine, before getting on to this week's business: what I see as a growing backlash among younger generations toward AI that business leaders need to contend with.
My story comes from my friend Marc (a former managing director at Marsh McLennan, as it happens). He was at the helm in a multi-day sailboat race around Long Island in the 1980s and timed the start almost perfectly. In the chaotic way that these races start, you don't know when the horn will blow, so you circle as you try to be at full speed with a clear path to the starting line when the horn sounds. Marc had succeeded — but Ted Turner was bearing down on him, aiming for the same spot on the line that Marc was going to cross.
Marc had the right of way, but this was Ted Turner, recent winner of the America's Cup, in a much bigger, faster boat, with a world class, steely glare as he steered his boat on a collision course with Marc.
Marc never wavered, and at the last possible moment Turner bore off, did a 360, and crossed the starting line a minute or so later. Turner won the class among the biggest boats, while Marc and his crew just did well in his class of smaller ones. Finishing late at night, he and his crewmates headed to a bar to decompress. At 1am, they were getting ready to call it a night, when the bartender set a round of drinks in front of them and said they were sent with the compliments of the gentleman at the door. The gentleman was Ted Turner. He nodded respectfully in their direction. Then he gave them the finger with both hands and stormed out.
The bartender told Marc that Turner said he'd been scouring every bar on the waterfront in search of Marc and his friends. Whatever else you want to say about Turner, the man had style.
Now on to the backlash against AI that we all should be watching.
I use my daughters, aged 32 and 29, as my antennae about attitudes among Millennials and Gen Z, and they started bristling about AI months ago. Initially, they complained about the huge amounts of water required for cooling. If I ever mentioned using an AI for something, one of them might make a snide remark — they're given to snide remarks with their father — like, “I guess the real prompt is: ‘Hey ChatGPT, could you please drain another reservoir for me?’”
Hyperscalers' wild need for electricity for their gen AI data centers led to concerns about what AI was doing to the environment. That my daughters' electric bills were climbing didn't help matters.
More recently, they've resonated with the concerns of those facing the prospect of having data centers built near them, each spanning perhaps tens of thousands of acres. To top it all off, my older daughter lost her writing job to an AI, as I mentioned last week. The girls have told me to turn off the AI summary that Google Search now offers.
A recent New York Times article reports on a Gallup survey that found Gen Z's attitude toward AI souring, and for reasons that go well beyond the sorts of environmental concerns that initially triggered my daughters.
"Many respondents did acknowledge that A.I. might make them more efficient in school and the workplace," the article said. "But they were concerned about how the technology would affect their creativity and critical thinking skills.
"Young adults in the work force were especially skeptical. Close to half of those surveyed said the risks of artificial intelligence outweighed its potential benefits in the workplace, an 11-point jump from the previous year. Only 15 percent said they saw A.I. as a net benefit."
The Times also reported on a viral video (that my daughters had already made sure I saw) of a woman giving a commencement speech in which she declared that "the rise of artificial intelligence is the next Industrial Revolution" — only to be roundly booed by the students.
“'What happened?' [she] stammered, looking over her shoulder, as if searching for an escape hatch," the Times reported.
She continued:
"'Only a few years ago, A.I. was not a factor in our lives.
"The crowd erupted in cheers.
“'And now, A.I. capabilities are in the palm of our hands.' Boooooooooo.
"One might call it a 'read the room' moment."
Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google, got booed even harder when talking about AI in his commencement address at the University of Arizona on Friday.
I'm not saying dissatisfaction among younger generations will stop the adoption of generative AI, any more than concerns by earlier generations could stop the internet or the smartphone. I'm also not saying Millennials and Gen Z are Luddites; they're extremely sophisticated about technology.
What I'm saying is that younger generations seem to be taking a warier approach than those of us of a certain age, who've not only been through a few technology revolutions and have accepted their inevitability but whose views are perhaps softened by what all the AI investments are doing for our retirement accounts.
And those younger generations get a vote. The discussions among business leaders may be about use cases for AI, about how to implement AI most effectively, about how to demonstrate ROI to shareholders, and so on, but your employees are going to be doing that implementing. If a big chunk of your work force dislikes or distrusts AI, they can provide a lot of silent resistance that may surprise you if you haven't made the effort to understand their concerns and to work with your employees to address them.
Cheers,
Paul
P.S. After writing this commentary last night, I wake up today to find that I'm not the only one thinking about the AI backlash. A New York Times columnist wrote: Why College Grads Are Booing Their Commencement Speakers. The Wall Street Journal led its website with: The American Rebellion Against AI Is Gaining Steam. Their reporting/reasoning differs a bit from mine, but my conclusion remains the same: Proceed with caution.
P.P.S. It is with great sadness that I note the passing of Stephen Applebaum at age 81. Stephen was one of the earliest and dearest friends of ITL and was generous not just with me but with everyone he met in his decades of work in the insurance industry. I looked back through the 80-some articles Stephen wrote or co-wrote for us over the years to see if I might single out a few, but there are just too many sharp insights. I will point to one, which he wrote a year ago with his business partner, Alan Demers, because it's not only very smart but because Stephen always struck me as an empathetic man: "Re(Defining Empathy in Insurance."
Here is a link to a brief obituary, to the funeral arrangements and to a way to donate to the Dragonfly Foundation, a favorite of Stephen's that focuses on pediatric cancer care.
May his memory be a blessing.