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Summary
Against growing AI anxiety, human connection is what we must hold on to.
There was a time when we took stock of technological growth based on Moore’s Law, named after Intel co-founder Gordon Moore. It suggested that computing power doubled roughly every two years. It gave us a rhythm, a sense of scale and expectation.
In present times, if you were to wait to check on developments every two years, you would find a world you don’t recognise because of the sheer speed at which AI advances now outpaces the attempt of humans to understand it. AI can be game-changing. Yet even the acceleration will reach a point we can’t predict as AI begins to build itself. It’s not surprising that underneath the excitement lies a frisson of anxiety as humans are forced to re-evaluate their own place in the modern world. Yet, we have no choice but to get past the fear and carve out new pastures.
The IT sector is experiencing a wave of layoffs—that painful truth we know. While the numbers are high, the relationship between these job cuts and AI is complex. Certain kinds of jobs are being lost, but AI is also used as a convenient corporate scapegoat for restructuring. The situation naturally causes extreme anxiety across the board, even though new—but different—jobs will come up. This is the most visible face of AI anxiety right now.
Growing unease at work
Even for those not in immediate danger of being laid off, there is a great amount of unease as AI changes the equation between an employee and the employer. Have you ever worked really hard at something, submitted it with a great amount of satisfaction, only to be rewarded with a knowing smirk and be asked whether you got ChatGPT to do the job?
Never before have we found ourselves in the dilemma of having to prove proficiency with technology and AI while also having to demonstrate that our own expertise, judgement and skills are sound and strong. There’s a constant pressure to upskill and reskill, which is thought to lead to quicker burnout. With AI taking over many portions of a role, employees feel uneasy about their own relevance and worth. An unenviable position to be in.
Trust deficit increases
Another source of anxiety, and dare I say utter exhaustion, comes from the amount of fake content descending on us. The use of AI to create deepfakes, generate art, and spread fake news is so rampant that we are no longer able to trust even what is real.
That constant doubt and uncertainty leave lingering unease and the feeling that one is constantly being duped by something or the other. When put to use in the service of scams, it’s even more anxiety-producing. The need to always fact-check makes it infinitely worse.
AI anxiety is often talked about as if it were one big fear. It isn’t. It’s a cluster of uneases, pulling in different directions, showing up in different parts of our lives. Some of it is personal, some professional, some societal, and some existential.
What makes this moment difficult is not that people are panicking. It’s that they are anxious about different things at the same time.
At the everyday level, there is the anxiety of the black box. AI systems make decisions, recommendations, and judgments without clearly explaining how they arrive at them. Even those who build these systems often can’t fully trace their reasoning. For users, this creates discomfort. You may rely on the output, but you don’t entirely trust it. There’s no transparency or predictability.
In this environment of fractured trust and opaque logic, the antidote is a shift towards what Jane Wurwand, business visionary, author and small business supporter, calls the ‘High-Touch’ era, a pivot away from the high-tech era. Her argument is that the more the world is governed by high-tech automation, the more we will crave the opposite: The irreducibly human qualities of empathy, kindness, and physical presence. This isn't just a comfort; it is becoming a survival strategy. When we can no longer trust the digital image or the automated voice, the weight of a person standing in front of us becomes the only verifiable truth left.
While the seatbelt sign remains on, our way through the turbulence isn't by outperforming the tech, but by leaning into the emotional resonance that no machine can simulate. In the end, our greatest professional and personal asset is the one thing the black box can never replicate: The warmth of our presence and the sincerity of our connection.
The New Normal: The world is at an inflexion point. Artificial intelligence (AI) is set to be as massive a revolution as the Internet has been. The option to just stay away from AI will not be available to most people, as all the tech we use takes the AI route. This column series introduces AI to the non-techie in an easy and relatable way, aiming to demystify and help a user to actually put the technology to good use in everyday life.
Mala Bhargava is most often described as a ‘veteran’ writer who has contributed to several publications in India since 1995. Her domain is personal tech, and she writes to simplify and demystify technology for a non-techie audience.
English (US) ·