Time to read: 8 minutes
What we are unpacking today:
What happens when AI outruns us, why meaning can’t be optimized, and the rise of the interpersonal economy.
Hi {{first_name | default: 'there'}}!
Before the holiday rush kicks in—with all the cookies, year-end reviews, and festive chaos—I want to share something that's been on my mind.
It's less about the practical stuff and more about the bigger picture.
(Funnily, most of these thoughts are coming to me while putting up our brand new shiny website.)
What if the AI race keeps advancing? What if we actually reach artificial general or super intelligence, where machines can handle all our cognitive work?
And it's not just mental tasks and office jobs.
Production gets so efficient that we don't even need to go back to farming or building.
So here's the question: What do we do then? What happens to us as humans?
While this is not reality for most of us at the end of 2025, and it sounds like wild imagination at this moment, I kindly ask you to stay with me.
Let me explain.
I just listented to two Steven Bartlett podcasts (!) with Stuart Russell and Tristan Harris that will not let me go. Here is what you absolutely need to know:
1. Future-Proof By Being Human
The podcasts reveal tech leaders racing toward AGI with 25-30% extinction risk estimates.
Translation: if we get to AGI, there is 25-30% chance that that's the end of human race.
They know the danger, yet they cannot stop. Russell said it himself: greed is driving companies to pursue this technology with probabilities worse than Russian roulette.
I have seen this pattern play out in big companies time and again.
(Hit reply and tell me if you have seen it too.)
Incentives win over values. People hide behind "if we don't do it, someone else will." And power grows without any real self-reflection or growth.
I believe AGI isn't some external threat from outer space. It's more like a mirror showing us our own worst leadership habits → amplified.
AGI doesn't doom us. Unchecked ambition does.
So the real question is: Are we ready to look in that mirror?
2. The Gorilla Problem
Russell explained it bluntly: millions of years ago, humans branched off from gorillas.
Now gorillas have no say in whether they continue to exist.
If humans decided to, we could make gorillas extinct in a matter of weeks. There is nothing they could do about it. Intelligence is the single most important factor to control planet Earth.
This shakes me. We are building something more intelligent than us. Just as gorillas became powerless when a smarter species emerged, we are creating our own successor.
The question is not whether it will be conscious or friendly. The question is: when something smarter controls the planet, what happens to us?
3. We Cannot Define The Why
Russell shared something unsettling: we are growing AI systems with objectives we do not even understand.
We did not program them, they emerged.
At the same time, we, humans still cannot write down what would make human life meaningful precisely enough for a machine to optimize it.
Oh, ok, well, think about it. We can teach AI to win at chess because the objective is clear.
But how do you specify the objective in life? If we cannot tell ourselves what we want from life, how will something smarter than us know? Maybe the answer is not in programming better objectives. Maybe it is in recognizing that meaning cannot be optimized. AI can't hear that.
4. The Abundance Paradox
Tech companies paint a pretty picture: diseases cured, work automated, everyone gets a universal income. Harris pointed out they are all selling this same utopia.
Let's say they actually pull it off. Then what?
When everything becomes abundant, what's truly valuable anymore?
Here's my take: if anything, then on the surface, we will all be more equal. But not inside.
People with emotional maturity, self-trust, and the ability to reflect—they will thrive. Those without will struggle, not financially, but mentally and emotionally.
I am already seeing this in my coaching work.
Clients don't come to me because AI and any searchable knowledge at close to zero cost can't give them better frameworks. They absolutely can.
They come because they need another human who has felt uncertainty to sit with theirs. Who knows what it is to have a difficult day, to lose something that mattered.
Abundance doesn't create meaning. Connection does.
5. The Interpersonal Economy Is Coming
Harris said the work that remains is where we value the human relationshi, not just the performance.
Executive coaches. Life coaches. Teachers. Therapists. Creative partners.
Jobs where connection is the whole point, not just the output.
And this isn't just about warm fuzzy feelings. This is about economic value shifting entirely to roles built on human interaction.
My TEDx research found something striking: people would wait two years for human support rather than take instant AI help.
Why?
Because only humans have consciousness paired with shared experience. Only we can feel your pain in our bones because we have walked similar paths.
I continue to believe that our ability to be truly present with another human becomes the rarest, most valuable resource.
The interpersonal economy needs skills, not just philosophy. Grab the free "What AI Can't Hear Pack" with the exact listening behaviors and team questions that turn this newsletter's insights into daily practice.
This is the conversation I bring to corporate and community stages: how to work with AI without losing what makes us irreplaceable. My 2026 speaking calendar is booking fast.
Reach out if you want this message at your next event.
Did you miss our last newsletters?
Inboxes can get a little crazy, right? Just in case you missed them, here are the links to our previous newsletters:
- Newsletter #22: I’m sharing how I built my TEDx talk with AI and what it taught me about collaboration that no research paper ever could. → LINK HERE
- Newsletter #21: I'm showing the messy middle beats chasing perfection—and why AI can’t replace the human moments that make growth real. Insights, stories, and tools for leaders navigating change. → LINK HERE
- Newsletter #20: I'm sharing how three hidden Claude settings can 10x your workflow and why The Change Republic is becoming a practice space, not just more content. → LINK HERE
Thanks for reading. Just drop a quick reply if you have any feedback.
Wishing you a great weekend ahead.
Warm regards,
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