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Will artificial intelligence take our jobs?
Make us less capable of thinking for ourselves? Replace human relationships? And what kind of world will our children and grandchildren inherit?
These are reasonable questions. And with artificial intelligence developing so rapidly, it’s understandable that many of us feel a little unsettled about what comes next.
I’ve spent much of my life fascinated by the human brain and mind. From studying the physiology of the brain as an undergraduate to my work as a psychotherapist and executive coach, I’ve always been interested in what makes us tick—and how we can tick better.
More than 30 years ago, I read Kevin Kelly’s Out of Control, a fascinating exploration of the relationship between biology, technology, and increasingly complex systems.
Today, that title seems particularly appropriate.
Who’s in charge?
We’ve Been Extending Ourselves for a Very Long Time
Consider the history of human invention.
Stone tools extended the capabilities of our hands. Language helped us share ideas. Writing allowed us to preserve knowledge beyond the limits of individual memory. The printing press spread information to millions. Calculators, computers, and smartphones changed how we work, communicate, and solve problems.
Now artificial intelligence is extending our cognitive abilities in ways we’re only beginning to understand.
There’s an old analogy that compares the brain to hardware and the mind to software. Although it’s far from a perfect comparison, it helps explain something important.
Our minds are constantly interpreting the world, creating stories about what things mean, what might happen next, and what we should do about it.
But those stories aren’t always accurate.
Now we have technology capable of producing its own convincing explanations, predictions, and stories.
If we sometimes struggle to question the stories our own minds tell us, how prepared are we to question the stories AI tells us?
I believe that question is at the heart of how we can face the future with greater confidence.
7 Brave Ways to Face AI Anxiety
- Remember That Uncertainty Is Not New
Human beings have always lived with uncertainty.
Our ancestors faced predators, famine, disease, and dangers they couldn’t predict. Today, we face technological changes that may transform our jobs, relationships, education, and daily lives.
Our brains are naturally alert to threats. That’s helped us survive, but it can also lead us to treat frightening possibilities as inevitable outcomes.
They aren’t.
Uncertainty is not the same thing as catastrophe.
Rather than asking, “What if everything goes wrong?” we might also ask, “What possibilities could open up, and how can we prepare wisely?”
- Separate What You Can Control from What You Cannot
The Serenity Prayer reminds us to distinguish between what we can change and what we cannot.
We can’t individually control the development of artificial intelligence or predict exactly what the world will look like in 2050.
But we can control how thoughtfully we use aritifical intelligence, what information we trust, what skills we continue developing, and how we participate in conversations about its responsible use.
We can also support safeguards and accountability.
The point isn’t to control everything. It’s to recognize where our choices still matter.
- Question the Story—Whether It Comes from Your Mind or AI
In my children’s book, What’s Your Story? Building Your Best Adventures in School and Life, I introduce a simple approach called ATM:
Acknowledge. Team Up Inside. Make a Plan.
It helps children recognize that the stories their minds create aren’t necessarily facts, and that they can choose how to respond.
But this isn’t just a lesson for children.
Adults need it, too.
When AI offers an answer, recommendation, or interpretation, we can ask: Is this accurate? What’s missing? What assumptions are being made? Does this make sense in the context of my own experience and values?
UNESCO’s AI Competency Framework for Students similarly emphasizes critical judgment and a human-centered approach to technology.
The ability to question what we’re told may become one of our most important human skills.
- Let AI Strengthen Your Thinking, Not Replace It
There’s a meaningful difference between delegating a task and surrendering our judgment.
Artificial intelligence can help us brainstorm, organize ideas, understand unfamiliar subjects, and consider perspectives we might otherwise overlook.
I use it myself and appreciate what it can do.
But there’s a risk when convenience becomes dependence.
Instead of asking artificial intelligence to do all our thinking, we might ask it to challenge us.
“What am I missing?”
“What would someone who disagrees with me say?”
“How could this answer be wrong?”
These questions keep us actively engaged.
Artificial intelligence can help us think. It shouldn’t relieve us of the responsibility to think.
- Protect the Human Connections That Matter
AI companions can be endlessly available, patient, and agreeable.
Human relationships are rarely so accommodating!
But that’s part of what makes them valuable.
Real relationships require us to listen, compromise, tolerate differences, manage disappointment, and care about another person’s needs.
Technology may help us communicate and stay connected, but we need to be thoughtful about what happens when digital interactions begin replacing the human ones that help us grow.
Whether we’re parents, grandparents, partners, friends, or colleagues, maintaining meaningful relationships remains something we can choose to prioritize.
- Practice Responding Instead of Reacting
Psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl wrote about the importance of our capacity to choose our attitude toward difficult circumstances.
When we encounter another alarming headline about AI, we can notice our immediate reaction without allowing it to make our decisions for us.
Are we responding to something that has actually happened, or to something we’re afraid might happen?
Are we considering evidence, or imagining the worst?
Can we remain curious even when we’re concerned?
These questions don’t eliminate uncertainty. They help us meet it with greater clarity.
Being brave doesn’t mean having no fear. It means not letting fear make all our choices.
- Do Your Part Without Trying to Do Everything
Rabbi Tarfon offered a beautiful reminder in Pirkei Avot:
“It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you at liberty to neglect it.”
We don’t have to solve every problem associated with artificial intelligence.
We can educate ourselves, ask better questions, encourage independent thinking, maintain meaningful human connections, and support responsible uses of technology.
Each of us has a role, however modest it may seem.
And collectively, those choices matter.
So, Who’s in Charge?
I don’t know exactly what artificial intelligence will be capable of in 2050.
Nobody does.
But I believe the human qualities we’ve always needed—curiosity, courage, compassion, discernment, resilience, and responsibility—will become more important, not less.
Our tools have changed enormously throughout history. Our responsibility for how we use them hasn’t disappeared.
The question isn’t only how intelligent our machines will become. It’s at least as much if not more how wise we will become in using them.
And that is a future we still have a part in shaping.
Love,
Madelaine
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