Scarcity in Abundance

The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) as ‘the’ new interface can be felt in many organisations. The use of AI for information gathering, also known as ‘prompting’ is becoming more commonly used. Prior knowledge is less important on the work floor as AI tirelessly provides relevant answers. In your organisation, you might see a discord between people who won’t have any of it yet, on one side, and those who fully embrace AI, on the other. With the latter not fully committing as necessary guidelines, or ‘guardrails’, are still in development.

For years, technology positivists have been longing for it: the next iPhone moment. A technology that would be so revolutionary that it would turn everyone’s life upside down. For years, prophets have been prognosticating that it would be the blockchain, but a multitude of applications failed to materialize. After that, this digital ledger gave way to the headsets of virtual reality. The Metaverse would surely be the next big thing and we would meet, play and live in 3D. But adoption turned out to be many times slower than predicted and enthusiasm faded away.

The main challenges we face today are the result of two major experiments. One experiment started quite recently, when OpenAI at the end of 2022 decided to release a new form of artificial intelligence (AI) to the general public. At stellar pace, people all over the world flocked to it. The creators of ChatGPT are fascinatingly observing us from their laboratory as their unknowing guinea pigs. The second experiment started some seventy years ago with the great acceleration of the economy. Unprecedented year-on-year growth, based on the technological breakthroughs of the industrial revolution, set thetone for today’s expectations. Products, technology and services came in abundance. Inventors and organizations alike, watched with fascination as this growth experiment dramatically changed our lives. Scarcity in Abundance is an exploration of where these two experiments can lead to. For example, an abundance of artificial intelligence in combination with a scarcity of products, resources and nature. Connecting the two is an appealing thought. Could the one offer the solution of the other? After all, super technology such as AI is capable of a lot. But what about culture and nature, that evolve according to their own rules?