Released On 28 September 2026
Anushka's blog: Artificial Armageddon?
Used with critical thinking, AI frees us for more creative, human work.
Does the advent of AI and its hallucinations herald the end of humanity as we lose our ability to distinguish truth from reality and delegate all our thinking to machines? Maybe we see it as a literal subversion of Descartes’s, ‘I think therefore I am’? If we no longer think for ourselves, do we no longer exist?
I have a much more sanguine view of AI.
AI only knows what humans feed it and 99.999% of what is in our heads is never spoken or written about. Often the most beautiful and interesting parts of life (the white space, the unsaid and the myriad interpretations of a glance or an expression) are happily unfathomable to AI. We are, in my view, far from delegating our thoughts to artificial intelligence.
As for distinguishing truth from reality, humanity has faithfully absorbed ‘hallucinations’ or conclusions drawn on spurious foundations for millennia. Take religion, as an example, which has sometimes been abused to control people. At least AI is agnostic to its hallucinations.
Like it or not, AI is here and we should focus on how to harness it to improve our lives. One overarching positive is that it removes the mind-numbing, repeatable tasks from our existence and releases mental capacity for more creative, strategic and human pursuits. A tool is only as good or bad as how we choose to use it. AI cannot be programmed for kindness and compassion, and humans will always master AI in this regard.
I see AI as a way of homogenising ideas and sets a baseline as to what everyone knows by encapsulating what has been said already. If I want to do better in my thinking, I look at the AI summary on a topic and seek to differentiate myself from that. Responsible use of AI coupled with critical thinking, rather than over-reliance, sets a person apart from the majority. When interviewing candidates, I noticed that the one candidate who asked genuine questions at the end of the interview rather than reeling off the ‘Top 3 interview questions’ found on Co-Pilot stood out a mile. A candidate CV which had been altered by AI to more closely match the job description did not stand up to interview scrutiny and was another home goal for AI.
Similarly, I feel that the real market differentiation a business has is in its ability to harness AI responsibly to grow efficiently whilst retaining a human element. The human overlay to deal with customers when there is an issue and resolve matters in an empathetic and personal way, will set that business apart. I automatically favour a business that has an actual helpline with a person I can speak to rather than a chatbot to resolve a matter and this obviates the business risks of customer complaints. A business that has fallback capability to continue without the use of AI and is not materially dependent on it, will also be more resilient.
As with most things in life, risks present opportunities. The risks of AI create space for debate on its ethics, better regulation and work creation testing AI and auditing its regulatory compliance whilst educating people on how to use and engage critically with it. One view is that over-dependence on AI could encourage laziness and the loss of the ability to critical think. Another view is that we are so aware of the fallibilities of AI and its hallucinations as well as the fake news that abounds the online world, that it has led to people engaging in critical thinking more than they would have done before.
As an optimist, I see an expansion of leisure time allowing for critical thinking and creativity and hope for a world where the performing arts, literature, sports, music, psychology, philosophy, politics, manual skills, teaching, caring and medical professions will all be given higher esteem. As a retaliation to an increasingly screen dependent and artificial intelligence infiltrated world, we will start to value human effort, real-life interactions, reading books and absorbing life in a slower and more appreciative way. Rather than being the technological Armageddon, it could enable the renaissance of humanity.
Anushka is a full time lawyer, parent of two teenagers and running and writing hobbyist.
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