Harnessing Human Potential in the Age of AI - Elan Gelfand interviews Dr. Ana Melikian

AI is going to change everything and has a huge potential. And the best way to make sure that potential is leveraged for a better future for us all, including the planet, is by first tapping into our human potential. I'm your host, Annamalikian. I'm here to support you increase your impact while preventing burnout.

The Mindset Zone is a place to pause, increase your self-awareness and embrace the experimentation mindset. Find more resources, including information about the Mindset Zone book and audiobook at mindset.zone. Yes, instead of .

com, it's .zone. Today episode is an interview originally recorded for the podcast Abandoned Thinking, where Ilan Gelfand interviews me about the human advantage in the era of AI. Here is our conversation.

Anna, welcome to the show. You have a top 1% podcast and your most recent episode was titled, AI Won't Save Us, But Our Human Potential Might. What does actualizing our human potential mean to you, Anna? It's often said that we only use a very small percentage of our potential.

The reality, we don't know what really the 100% of our potential is. But we know that if we learn about ourselves, we really can do much more and have a much bigger positive impact out there in the world. And that is really essential. And that is what I mean, actualize our human potential is let's learn more about what we can do out there, who we are as individuals, as groups and as society, and really be more intentional in the way that we are out there.

Yeah, I guess I think a better question for me to ask first was going before actualizing our human potential. How can we find our potential to begin with? I think sometimes people see technology and humans as two opposite things. And the reality, if you think from a historical perspective, we are humans because we develop this capacity of creating technology.

Even before we are Homo sapiens sapiens, our ancestors developed fire. There is a technology behind starting fire at will. think about Stone Age, doing instruments of stone. There is technology, there is a craft and knowledge to do that.

And I always kid with people if they doubt it. Go outside, pick two stones, bang them against each other and tell me the results. And then we speak about all the knowledge and craft to create an object out of stone that can, like a knife that can cut and we can do things with it. Yeah, you brought up a really good point with speaking about how we sometimes feel like we're opposite of technology.

I think that was such an interesting example you brought up because I personally would think, you know, when I think about AI, when I think about technology, I think about me and then something else, right? It's not necessarily with me. But you bring up the simple example of, you know, like developing the technology for fire, developing the technology, same thing, you know, rubbing two stones together. It's super interesting to think that over time it's become more of I think people are starting to attribute it to something that's other than us because it's getting so close to doing what we do.

You have you have two masters and a Ph.D. in psychology. I mean, that's absolutely crazy.

So I wanted to ask, knowing the plethora of information that you do about psychology, how big of a role does understanding ourself come in? I know you talk about actualizing our human potential, trying to make sure that we're the best version of ourselves at this current time. But how much of the information that you know relates to what we're talking about? A lot.

And you were referring something that is important and is different, a little bit different from other technological revolutions. Because we have faced technological revolutions in the past, because interesting enough, and allow me to go a little backwards first before answering your question. If we think about biologically, so we move from enters and gatherers to creating farms and start to live in a sedentary way that led to the cities about 12,000 years ago. And biologically, anthropologists say that we are not very different from somebody that lived 12,000 years ago.

So what have changed during this period has been the technology that we invented and the culture that we create to adapt to the technological innovations. So that is the reality. And of course, during that process of invention of the technology and adaptive technology and creation of culture around it, we redefine what it is to be a human. Think about there was a long period in our history that we believe that the Earth was the center of the universe.

And then because we develop a technology that allow us to look to the stars and to study the stars, there were people that start to question that belief and say, no, no, it doesn't make sense with the evidence that we have that the Earth is the center of the universe. The sun is the center of the universe and the earth goes around the sun. But why was so difficult for in this case the church to accept that and people in general Because the uniqueness of the human being was we are the center of the universe And now you are telling me that we are not the center of the universe.

We are special. And that was, they call it the Copernic Revolution, because it changed the way that we saw ourselves. Now with AI, something similar is happening because, like you were saying, AI is doing things, namely the chatbots like ChatGTP, is doing things that we have considered uniquely human. He can write poetry better than most of us.

He can do many of these softwares, can create music, can create visuals that are absolutely fantastic. So areas that until recently we had, oh, these only humans can do well. Now we have this technology doing things that for most of us say, whoa, this is really, really impressive, is creating the same identity crisis. Who are we and what make us special?

And that takes us to the next thing, because we really have to look inwards and what can we offer as human beings that is different, that allow us to complement what these technologies allow us to do in order to create a better future. I think it's so powerful knowing the history of how our, I'm not going to say minds, but how our thinking develops. You mentioned earlier that, you know, we didn't believe that we as humans on the earth were not the center, right, of the rotation.

It was the sun instead. So knowing this pattern, right, you talked about how 12,000 years ago, we're not fundamentally, we're not that different as humans. You mentioned technology and culture being a big thing that constantly changes over and over again. knowing this information, right, that technology and culture is the biggest changes of what is happening all around us, the fact that we have to accept what's going on instead of saying, no, no, this can't be, this isn't possible.

How powerful do you think knowing this information sets you up to be able to tell other people about how AI is going to change us and the businesses around us? Because we have to realize that, okay, biology, not much difference. Technology, Yes, a lot of difference. And we keep innovating and accelerating the change.

And culture has changed a lot. But culture is always, how do you say, slow, is slow. So what do we have that is fast? I like to, we can use one term that is called modus operandi, MO, the way that we operate in the world is the thing that all of us as individuals and as groups, and we can, develop that allow us to be in a better place to take advantage of these technologies, not just reacting to it.

Because that is essentially the key here, is we are wired to react. Our brain is something that when we are facing uncertainty, when we are facing danger or a threat, our brain is wired to react. It's the fight, flight, or freeze response. That is our nervous system is wired and it helps our ancestors to survive and happens automatically.

For instance, if you are walking on a parking lot, a car comes out of nowhere, it's a gift that you don't have to think. You just move. So these things, we are wired for this for a reason. And the problem of these reactions is not a problem.

It's something that can save our lives even today for our ancestors and for us today. The problem is when we stay stuck in this reactivity cycle, when fight and flight and hopefully not freeze becomes our modus operandi, becomes the way that we deal with everything in the world. And now, because we are living in a society that is so fast-paced, that is so easy to be always in that fight-and-flight response. And from there, we really see tunnel vision and we cannot see the possibilities that we have of responding of a different way.

And if we develop our mental way, I call it mental fitness, to be in a better position and more resilience to bring our nervous system to a more flexible place that allow us to react when we need to react, but also allow us to be intentional. By developing that mental fitness is when we have the opportunity of creating an intentional future. Sure. One of the big things that you talk about is being able to develop individuality individually and with a team at the age of AI.

I think one of the things that I'm seeing so much of is the idea that companies are firing their employees, they're cutting their costs because it's so easy. It's like, hey, listen, if I can have a chat GBT agent do this monotonous work, I don't need Kathy from accounting doing it for me. So my question to you is, how do we navigate being a human in an AI age? And how can we understand that there is an actual purpose and actual value we can provide more than the chat GPT can when working at a company?

Yes, and this is a very interesting question and something that when I do one of my keynotes is really one of the central points. And I like to use the image of I'm originally from Portugal. If people are wondering about my accent, that is where it's from, Portugal. And in Portugal, that is, maybe you are familiar with it, it's not very far away from the capital, Lisbon.

And we have this beautiful place called Nazar that is known worldwide as the center for big wave surfing Because there we have 100 foot waves in the winters It's absolutely crazy. Eight stories tall waves. Have you ever seen this? Oh, yeah.

That's crazy. And it's crazy. And I use that image of the 100 foot wave for AI. I call it, and this is the name of one of my keynotes, the 100-foot AI wave, because I think represents what we are facing.

This is an absolutely massive disruption. And I like this image of the wave and not of a tsunami. Some people compare it to a tsunami, but a tsunami, the only thing that you can do is you get out of the way. A wave, even a 100-foot wave, is surfable.

You can ride this wave because there are these people that are called the big wave surfers that go there every winter to ride the 100-foot wave. But there is a very important nuance, and that is why I use this image. Because usually when we think about surfing, we are thinking about the dead, like somebody in California or Hawaii with a surfboard, like in the top of the board, just himself in the endless ocean. Big wave surfing is different.

They have to have people that take them to the right point. They take with jet skis. They take them to the right point in the ocean. So they have a jet ski team that drive them to the right point.

They have people in the lighthouse that are spotting the right waves. And they have emergency teams always there because that things don't go according to plan. So big wave surfing is a great example of teamwork. It's not one person alone surfing the wave.

And my big thing with AI is that many, too many people are seeing AI as an individual thing. And really the potential of AI is seeing this as a team sport. that if we play it together, we are going to be able to do amazing things. In fact, if we look to the developments of what create this wave of AI that we are living nowadays with large language models and generative tools like ChatGTP, was not one person that came with an idea and started this.

was a team of people that came with ideas that originate this new wave of artificial intelligence technologies that we are living nowadays. And when you are speaking about companies, the ones that are going, in my opinion, to thrive long term and do big things are the ones that realize that we have to collaborate with these technologies, that we cannot leave people behind. Because we need people in many aspects of a company, and people are the consumers at the end of the day.

So we have to take that into consideration. And how can we, through innovation and collaboration, really reinvent the game? is the questionnaire. And that is where the potential of this technology is.

And where would you say, I think it definitely varies company to company because you see a lot of these bigger corporations firing a lot of people for the work that AI can do by itself. But where do you think people can fit in to a company that might have this monotonous work? Let's say, for example, your job is just to look through papers all day and report about what you learned, right? So how can you make a pitch to, I guess, I won't say a business owner, but to an employer that is looking at the base of a business.

They're always looking to cut costs, right? They're always looking to cut corners, whatever they can do. So how do you think that these employers can see something like this? Like, hey, you know what?

We're paying Anna $60,000 a year. I want her to use AI as a team. But if I cut her altogether, it'll just be the AI and it'll do just as good of a job. Does that kind of make sense where I'm coming from?

Yes, absolutely. There is going to be some jobs are going to disappear. That is the reality. But that always, obviously, I think about the typewriters.

There were full rooms of people, usually women, that were typing documents. And that disappeared in the moment that we start to have computers and was easier to write and copy. The other example that we usually give is the telephone operators. That was a full room of people just connecting cables and connecting calls.

And that now doesn't exist. We always can go back and look to examples of professions that had a certain job that sees technology replace them. But it doesn't mean that we didn't, with the technology development, we create new jobs. Very interesting.

So we have to be able to help people to adapt and to retrain and reskill. Absolutely. And that is the way that is going naturally to happen. But the leaders of the organizations, the big, most of them at the moment are still seeing AI as an addition.

and substraction game. I can automate this here, that workflow there, save costs this year. And I'm not saying that AI doesn't allow us to do that. And that is going to be part of the process.

But what I'm arguing is that that is a limited view of seeing this disruption because the potential is reinvent the games that we are playing. Let me try to give you a concrete example Probably you are too young for remember the beginning of the Internet Were you i just say do you remember when iphones were launched 2007 okay yes i mean okay i guess i don remember that but i remember i i remember ipods we'll say ipod yes ipods but so but the memory so 2007 when was the iphone was came to the market.

And at the beginning, everybody was telling, oh, pricey, cool, new phone. And was really a pricey, cool, new phone. But cool, we have imagined that we will have shared drives like Uber, Lyft. Will they exist without a smartphone?

Mobile banking? Or even social media. Social I'll tell me they already had the big ones, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter already had appear. But they really became so prevalent in our lives, helping revolutions and social movements and political movements after they start to be available in the palm of our hand in the mobile, the smartphone.

phone. So technology was not just a better phone, the iPhone and the smartphones allow all these new games to be played in a different way. And the internet was the same. I remember very well sending my first email when emails became a thing.

And for us, oh my gosh, we can send a message to the other person in the other side of the room because we are sending emails in the same room just to testing. This is going to much better than the post office. But the internet was not just a better post office. It starts new industries.

And that is the kind of thinking, we have to see this as an opportunity to reinvent the games. And hopefully, if we do it in an intentional way to create a better future, I love to use this image as saying AI is like a very, very fast car. So please, I beg you, when you start driving this car, make sure that you know the direction that you want to go. Otherwise, you are going to end very far away, very fast, in a place that you don't want to be.

How can people engage if they're going in the right direction? That is the part of the personal development, self-development, the group working in collaboration and seeing the systemic forces. This has to be something that is done with intention and having checkpoints. And to answer your question, it's a lot.

We can use this technology, and I really believe that businesses have an essential role to play here, because if we stop seeing just this more, more, more, more, more game, doing more for less, but we also start to see this. How can we do better, not just more, is when we really have the chance to build a better future? Sure. I think that is an amazing idea.

I love how you brought up the example of, you know, jobs fading away, but then technology creating new ones. It really resonated with me. So that's very interesting. My last question to you, Anna, is you talk about how we want to be a team player per se with AI as opposed to just making AI run everything, right?

What does that mean to you to be a team player? What are some examples of ways that we can help AI be, I won't say on a similar team because I feel like it's always doing the things we want it to be, but how can we get AI to help us as opposed to be the enemy that's going to take all of our jobs? Oh, my God, no. So seeing this as a collaboration, I'm in the school that we don't see artificial intelligence versus human intelligence is co-intelligence.

And as a member of your team, if you are playing the game for everybody in your team to win, and yes, you have one of the team mates is AI, knowing how much is possible about everybody in your team, including the AI technologies, will help you to know the strengths and the weakness of everybody, including AI. and know what are the roles that they can play that are more helpful for the end result of the game and what are the things that maybe you could use it for it. But it's really because AI can be also, can save us a ton of time, but can also be a rabbit hole that you fall in and after hours you go, oh, where the time is?

And I still have to do all the other things. It depends on how we use it. So, but by, we call it increase our AI literacy, knowing more about these is a benefit or knowing how to use these better. Anna, thank you so much for joining me.

Where can people find you at? So the easiest way is my website. That is my name, Anna, A-N-A, Melikian, M-E-L-I-K-I-A-N.com.

I hope you enjoy this conversation originally recorded for the Abundant Thinking podcast. Please follow the Abundant Thinking podcast wherever you listen to this podcast. If you can think of a person who will find this episode helpful, please share it. Spreading the word about the Mindset Zone podcast is very powerful.

For extra resources, including information about the book and audiobook, Mindset Zone, actualize your human potential, go to mindset.zone. Yes, instead of .com, it's .

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