Disruption and disruptors are all the rage in the past few decades.
We generally love disruptors, cheer for them and can't wait to see where the next one will pop-up.
The biggest disruptor yet, in my lifetime, is AI.
We used to call this progress and, I dare say, it still is.
Now, just like then, human nature loves a pack. We have a built-in "conformity police" that protects the status quo. If someone moves too fast or gets too creative, the group is quick to ask, "You think you're better than us?"
In the Muppets world, these are The Snowths (the pink backup singers). They are predictable, they stay on beat, and they do exactly as expected.
If we use AI purely to automate and standardize, we’re just sharpening the pencils for the conformity police. It can greatly diminish our capacity to understand the impact of the change we are making.
We’ll miss the eye rolls, the head-shaking, and the "stop it, you're not adding value" looks that keep us human. We need both.
That’s where Mahna Mahna comes in.
He’s the wild card. The jazz-scatting disruptor who refuses to stay in the box. He doesn't care about the script, he loves improvising.
And he's super annoying for people who just want to stay in line.
But what if we all join the jazz band? What if we let humans improvise, entertain and create the kind of value that a predictable algorithm can't? Most probably, AI will become a bit sanctimonious, like the Snowths.
That's fine. We just need to be clear on who's leading the song.
The sharp question is this: how do we convince the Snowths of the world that the only way to survive is to stop following rigidly the beat and join the jazz band?