Common sense: the human superpower in the age of AI
Artificial intelligence (AI) seems more and more omnipresent in our lives. Faster to learn and execute, it is taking over more and more spaces. However, there are areas that we would do well to cultivate to complement and humanize AI: common sense and style.
We see artificial intelligence (AI) as a tool that is likely to completely change our lives. Personally, it already does so a little more every day, often without us even realizing it. In our daily lives, we embrace it more enthusiastically through apps we install on our devices or through new services we implement at home.
However, in the professional sphere, the perception is not so clear. There tend to be two extremes: on the one hand, those who see AI as an evil force that will lead us to lose our jobs; and on the other, those who see it as the answer to all our present and future problems, a sort of “Holy Grail” of the 21st century.
We have talked about both extremes in previous articles in this space. Today I invite you to reflect on a human quality that could unite both perspectives: common sense. One reason is that common sense is a power that AI can never acquire. It is an organizing principle that has structured our lives since the dawn of humanity. But let's take it one step at a time.
The dictionary defines “common sense” as the “ability of human beings to assess situations in everyday life and make sound decisions.” The basis of these decisions lies in shared beliefs that, over time, have taught us what protects us, what generates well-being, what is beneficial to preserve us as a community or society, and what puts us at risk.
The power of common sense in a data-driven world
Common sense is based on those experiences that we all consider prudent, logical or valid. We can, then, define it as an organizing principle based on collective learning. It is a knowledge that helps us to orient ourselves between the positive and the negative, the beautiful and the ugly, both in our families and in our jobs. In short, common sense allows us to find order in a world that has been in constant flux for as long as we have existed. And it can serve that same function in this new world in which, as we all sense, we will share our existence with artificial intelligence and its data.
Although artificial intelligence systems can process enormous amounts of data and patterns, their ability to understand and apply “shared values,” “social intuitions” or “contextual empathy” will always remain limited. This is because common sense is not simply the result of logical analysis, but of a collective and cultural process spanning centuries of human experience.
In fact, this is already happening. As you may recall, artificial intelligence works, learns and evolves based on the questions we ask it, known as “prompts.” However, these prompts will only generate useful and valid results if we are able to constantly refine and improve them, based on the values we consider positive, valid and useful; in other words, on what common sense dictates to us. Therefore, AI cannot decide what is ethical in a business situation or recognize when a technological solution might generate undesirable consequences in a community environment.
The power of common sense in our organizations
Ultimately, our common sense reduces the AI world to the set of “variables” it needs in order to function. We could say that it is common sense that helps AI discern between what we consider “positive” and potentially negative. Therefore, I believe that common sense is perhaps the most important skill we can apply in the use of AI. I would even go so far as to say that common sense is the most valuable soft skill we possess as we enter this new world where we will share our lives with machines. Especially at a time when, due to the fascination with the power of AI, human beings themselves run the risk of losing their way when using it.
Taken to the world of our organizations, I would venture to say that, in a future shared with AI, they will depend on those leaders and people capable of defining what common sense is. Because everything else - theoretical knowledge, analysis or scientific processes - will be done by AI, and with increasing accuracy.
From this perspective, common sense is on its way to becoming the instrument that, like no other, will contribute to “humanize” and give true meaning to AI. Therefore, I invite you to encourage us to cultivate this soft skill that, in a world shared with AI, will probably be the most valuable of all.
By Alejandro Goldstein, Partner at OLIVIA.
