‘Pope Francis was a pope for the poor, the downtrodden and the forgotten. He was close to the realities of human fragility, meeting Christians around the world facing war, famine, persecution and poverty. Yet he never lost hope of a better world.’
Sir Keir Starmer
As we prepare this newsletter on Easter Monday, we have heard the news that Pope Francis has died. He not only provided clear and forward-looking servant leadership for the Catholic Church but also walked in the footsteps of Jesus with a real focus on the poor and disadvantaged, and he spoke truth to those in power, as so many have acknowledged.
Life after death is central to the Christian faith, as Jesus explained when he answered the Sadducees’ challenge. For this to be a reality, it follows that our memory, while it may communicate through our physical brain within this human life, is held in our soul: and in this respect I look forward to reading Professor Michael Egnor’s forthcoming book, ‘The Immortal Mind: A neurosurgeon's case for the existence of the soul’, when it’s published in June.
In the meantime, let's celebrate the human life of Pope Francis and wish him well as he journeys into the next world, taking his experiences and memory with him to share in that heavenly destination of unconditional love.
The theme for this week’s commentary is on learning to live with Artificial Intelligence, which Pope Francis described last year as ‘An Exciting and Fearsome Tool: please see our commentary on 17th June 2024.
The AI theme for this week starts with this ‘Freedom of Information’ response to The Times:
‘Minister Feryal Clark has not used ChatGPT or other generative AI systems in their official capacity.’
Feryal Clark is the UK Minister for Artificial Intelligence who said in January, ‘The AI revolution has started, it's not waiting for us’. Clearly not — and, if she has yet to learn to live with AI herself, it goes without saying that the rest of us have a lot of catching up to do.
It was brought into sharp relief for me at a meeting in Cambridge last week. A PhD research report had not only been reviewed on AI but also, within just a few minutes, Google’s Notebook LM had delivered an audio podcast on the research with two ‘people’ talking knowledgeably about it. They were speaking in American accents, but these instant reviews and podcasts can be now delivered in one's own voice using technology such as that run by 11ElevenLabs.
AI is pushing its way into almost all walks of life: for example, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has just approved the use of robotic surgery systems for eleven different types of operation, including knee and hip replacements, tumour and gallstone removal, and hernia repair.
But it is AI’s impact on employment opportunities for young people which should really concern us.
In a comment article last Wednesday, Alice Thomson wrote in the Times, ‘Gen Z need help or AI will take their jobs’. Her article starts by quoting an employer grumbling about uncooperative and inefficient young recruits, and how ChatGPT could do the jobs far more effectively.
It repeated the great chasm in youth unemployment, with more than one million 16-24 year-olds not in education, employment or training, and the lack of apprenticeship opportunities. These have seen a 41% decline over the past five years, and a 54% dropout rate.
The article also quotes a new book by Matt Beane called, ‘The Skill Guide: How to Save Human Ability in an Age of Intelligent Machines’. This points out how the working bond between learners and experts is crucial for passing on expertise and creating a sense of progress: that's difficult to achieve when ‘Working from Home’ is so prevalent for senior managers.
As envisaged by Richard Brautigan's poem, ‘All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace’ and the BBC series of the same name, we cannot turn back the continual intrusion of technology into human life and, while Alice Thomson correctly calls for employers to encourage innovation, curiosity, intuition and a sympathetic and flexible approach, it will be hard to turn back the tide of disappearing opportunities for young people.
There are, in my view, two key routes which should encourage and empower young people faced with these challenges:
Firstly, be entrepreneurial. If there’s something which appeals strongly to you, explore how it could develop into a financially rewarding activity. Learn as much as you can before stepping out independently and, when you start, keep costs — including your own income — firmly under control. Try to identify aspects which will provide an early source of revenue, even if they are not perfectly aligned with your ambitions: I would call this ‘surrogate capital’, and it's a much more effective way of keeping control of your business than borrowing or asking others to capitalise your work. And by all means focus on those characteristics which Alice Thomson calls for in her article.
Secondly, and on a much broader basis, we need to continue the quest for enabling people to participate in technological wealth creation: what we call, ‘Stock for Data’. Although the Trump era has further strengthened the oligarchy of the super-wealthy tech giant autocrats, this period will not last forever. The spectacle of 11-minute tourist flights into space courtesy of Jeff Bezos leaves an uncomfortable reaction for many people; we know that we have to find ways forward which can address this intense polarisation of wealth that these endeavours display.
So, while the economic and political world stumbles through Trump's tariffing and executive ordering over these next three years, we will continue to advocate a route which will enable everyone to share in the capital gains, dividends and corporate governance of tech giants, so that the worst outcomes of automation — Universal Basic Income — can be avoided.
Meanwhile, inter-generational rebalancing will provide young people from all backgrounds with the resources and life skills needed to explore both of these routes: the entrepreneurial and the participative.
If these key elements in the search for a more egalitarian form of capitalism can be achieved, I am very optimistic for the prospects for Gen Z and younger generations. It will be helped considerably if our leaders and politicians could demonstrate more selflessness and long-term thinking, but meanwhile we must continue to make progress.
Next week, we’ll be looking at a rather different aspect of Artificial Intelligence: the implications of its profligate use of energy, initiatives to discover new ways to generate renewable energy, plus some pointers towards how a dramatic reduction in that use of energy could be achieved. Watch this space!
Gavin Oldham OBE
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