JLA was delighted to welcome digital anthropologist Rahaf Harfoush for the penultimate session of the first-ever Festival of Speech.
Rahaf, whose work explores the critical and ever-changing intersection between technology and culture, asked audiences to look beyond the surface-level convenience of AI tools. She drew important attention to the deeper social, cultural, and human impacts of artificial intelligence as it permeates our world, alongside those we can expect to witness in the years ahead of us.
What does it truly mean to live, work and lead in an era where technology shapes not only our productivity, but our values, relationships and even memories?
Read on to hear about Rahaf’s perspective.
1. Investing in Human Expertise
Companies across industries world-wide are already well aware of the ways in which AI is transforming knowledge work. Tools can now generate pitch decks, marketing campaigns, or images in a matter of mere seconds, meeting assistants summarise conversations, and the words we exchange day-to-day are increasingly funnelled through the lens of an AI’s “opinion”.
However, Rahaf’s talk importantly highlighted the ways in which efficiencies come with a hidden but significant risk: the atrophy of human cognition.
“Our society is in the midst of transforming from a searching culture to a generating culture” she reflected: instead of hunting for answers, validating sources, and strengthening our critical faculties, we’re being conditioned to accept the single output a machine someone else has designed gives us.
This dynamic also reveals a widening divide amongst professionals.
On one hand, experienced workers with concrete and well-developed critical thinking skills can use AI to accelerate their work and eliminate menial tasks, validating and filtering outputs. On the other, students and early-career workers use AI without a firmly grounded reference point, substituting opportunities to develop their skillset and reach their own conclusions with AI outputs. Strategic thought is cut out of the equation.
Rahaf’s point brings to light the disparities between each use-case of AI; its application has different consequences for different people. As a result, it’s more important than ever for businesses to keep this in mind as they integrate these tools and technologies across their diverse workforces.
2. Technology as a Belief System
Rahaf moved on to spotlight an often underlooked aspect of AI’s ‘anatomy’: as a system designed by a person, every tool we use carries with it an invisible worldview.
“The technology that you use is actually the manifestation of a belief system”, she explained, “[…] every app, every tool, every device inside of it has someone’s idea of what they think the world should be.” Through this lens, the use of AI as a search engine becomes dubious – the answers it provides must necessarily be channelled through filters that represent the designer’s perspective.
For businesses looking to embed AI as an operation tool, the challenge is not simply whether it provides results, but whether it aligns with your organisation’s values and culture, without subtly reshaping them behind the scenes.
3. Embracing Complexity
Another powerful theme during Rahaf’s talk was the need to resist simple narratives about technology, characterising it as wholly “good” or “bad.” Instead, she urged leaders to embrace the reality: it will inevitably help us and harm us at the same time.
AI is facilitating incredible technological developments that are actively saving lives – improving cancer diagnoses and predicting natural disasters. At the same time, it is infiltrating the very things that make us human, from love – with the rise of human-robot romantic relationships – to grief – with its use to bring loved ones who have passed ‘back to life’ through image generation and voice imitation. These are two sides of the same coin.
Rather than taking ‘sides’ in the matter, arguing ‘for’ or ‘against’ artificial intelligence in a never-ending back and forth, we can face this duality head-on by recognising, accepting, and even getting comfortable with its necessary complexity.
Human-Centric Leadership
Rahaf closed with a call to establish and maintain an open, curious and critical mindset towards AI as the technology further deepens its roots within our society.
Amidst the shifting shades of uncertainty AI casts on our world, we must remain committed to asking the right questions, and following the answers. In Rahaf’s words,”no matter where [those questions] may take you – even if it’s uncomfortable, even if it’s scary, even if it’s unfamiliar…you’ll be able to face [the answer] and make a decision with calm and with clarity, knowing that you’re making decisions that are aligned with your values.”
In an era of rapid digital transformation, success will not belong to those who cling to easy answers, but to those willing to keep learning, questioning, and leading with humanity.
If you missed the event, you can watch additional highlights on our dedicated Festival of Speech page or read the write-ups from the first two sessions with James Cleverly and Nicola Sturgeon and Jamie Laing.
We still have one session from the evening to share – our fireside chat with Richard Ayoade. Keep an eye out for that in the coming weeks.
To enquire about booking Rahaf to speak at your own AI event, please contact us today.