Frank Dopheide is the founder and managing director of the management consultancy human unlimited, which specializes in the topic of “Purpose”. Previously, he was, among other things, spokesman for the management of the Handelsblatt Media Group and chairman of GRAY Worldwide.
(Photo: Klawe Rzezcy, Getty Images)
Dusseldorf Did you notice it too? The world and things around us are getting smarter. Toasters, phones and ticket machines now know more than we do. Even my television has recently started giving me tips on what to watch. He knows me better than I know myself.
Intelligence is the ability to think abstractly and rationally in order to derive appropriate action. This can also be done artificially. The AI is now a permanent fixture at Amazon and Netflix. And the famous chatbot ChatGPT is already writing articles about itself.
Everywhere we look, small bots and big machines make our lives easier and take the burden off our shoulders. They know the way, all telephone numbers by heart and automatically sort thousands upon thousands of photos by date, content or color. Mountains of vacation photos that have not been glued in are yesterday’s news.
Artificial intelligence is a real blessing. But it is probably also a reason why our brains are ten percent smaller than those of our ancestors. Life in the great outdoors has obviously shaped and challenged our brains more than flipcharts and PowerPoint.
AI makes it easy for us and significantly reduces the energy consumption of our brain. And that is just the beginning. The small, clever helpers push deeper and deeper into every niche of our lives – secretly, comfortably and quietly.
The chatbot is based on artificial intelligence (AI) and can understand human speech and produce texts.
(Photo: dpa)
Immersive, as the techies call it. Your ski jacket knows what you did last winter. Your watch is with you every step of the way and documents your progress – down to the meter. Convenience becomes a killer application. Who could say no to that? Let’s make life easy. My cell phone has all phone numbers in its head. I don’t know any more, not even my wife’s.
The neurobiologist Gerald Hüther sees our species on the way to the tapeworm. A relaxed life in a warm environment, without any effort. The tapeworm no longer even needs sex to reproduce. He’s just there and warm. Life in energy saving mode. Thinking becomes “forward”. I chat therefore I am.
Frank Dopheide: We are losing the sense of responsibility for our actions
In the discussion about artificial intelligence, there is one question that makes me worry even more. When my GPS shows the way, the fridge orders the yoghurt and Alexa selects the nearest doctor, who made the decision? If my brainstem and cerebral cortex are not involved in this process, do I feel responsible for the outcome? We lose the sense of responsibility for our actions. And it gets even worse.
What applies to me in private life affects thousands of people in business life. After all, the world of business considers a lot of automation and outsourcing. Whenever the little helpers are used, the increase in efficiency is inevitable. Who needs a call center when the chatbot knows everything better anyway? We check ourselves in at Lufthansa and out at the Ikea checkout ourselves. Making doctor’s appointments with ourselves and pushing red, yellow, green buttons in washrooms to articulate our satisfaction.
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Management by walking around has become management by mailing around. This noticeably increases efficiency and dramatically reduces understanding. Managers lose their sense of the company, customers and employees. They lose their ability to make decisions.
AI can calculate everything, it cannot feel anything. She has an answer for everything and a feeling for nothing. Frank Dopheide
A CEO is more than the Chief Excel Officer. Understanding the company and the work with all your senses, developing a feeling, looking for and feeling responsibility is the most important skill for entrepreneurial success.
Reinhold Würth, one of Germany’s model entrepreneurs, has turned it into a ritual. Once a year he challenges his family, now his granddaughters, to a sales competition. Get in the car, off to the customer and write orders. All against grandpa. Every screw counts. He has never been defeated. Today, Würth has a turnover of twenty billion euros and ensures that the feeling for “the shop” is not lost.
AI can calculate everything, it cannot feel anything. She has an answer for everything and a feeling for nothing. But that makes the difference.
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