Navigating through emerging technologies can be a challenging task, especially for those whose talents, gifts, aspirations, dreams and life purposes, are still hidden within.

Let me explain what I mean. Think of a body builder at age nine. In him, there are dreams, ideas, desires, and appetites that need to be recognised, explored, and expressed. In him, there are choices to be made, and he needs to experience the consequences of these choices, both good and bad. In him, there are small muscles that need to be challenged, stretched, torn, and yet endure and remain submissive under discipline. There is a lengthy process that requires effort and demands commitment for growth to happen. The journey is paved with both strenuous work and profound rest. Screams of excruciating pain and overwhelming joy can be heard along the road. His path is washed with pouring sweat and tears of ecstasy.

The exploration and expression of our hidden qualities is always a process. These hidden aspects of ourselves make us uniquely different from others, in a good way. But what happens if our unique features and hidden talents, desires, passions, and gifts don’t get recognised, explored, developed, or expressed? This would be a great loss to not only individuals but also to society.

What happens if the bodybuilder decides to take a shortcut and places silicon implants where his muscles should be? He is unable to lift weights because, simply, he lacks the muscles to do so.

We also can deny ourselves opportunities to explore, grow, develop, and express our voice if we seek shortcuts and allow AI tools to write and think for us. The cumulative effect of consecutive shortcuts represents a great short-circuit to our destiny. Some of us are called to find a cure for cancer; others are called to lead our country. We need teachers who can teach, leaders who can lead, servants who can serve. Yet, we all need to go through a process— the lengthy process of exercising, practising, learning, and experiencing.

When we allow a computer algorithm to replace us, our unique voice is lost among other computer-generated, complacent voices. In addition, what messages are we communicating to ourselves? There is the danger we are saying: you have nothing to say, your voice is not important, your thoughts are worthless, your opinions are useless, you can be replaced by AI, and/or you have no influence in society. So, what then is the purpose of our existence if we become dormant and are silenced?

Where do we go from here now that hundreds of new AI tools are emerging almost every day? Ignorance, fear, and rejection are not the answers.

Human beings are the most valuable asset in our societies. We would be fools to deny the voices of people who have ‘voiced out’ their inventions in the technology space. They are the ones embracing their unique journey of struggle and joy. They are the persistent ones who have seen their dreams fulfilled. Their inventions are here for us: to propel, empower, support, teach, guide, and inform us. If technology replaces us, it should always be so that we can tackle more challenging things that technology cannot tackle at this time in history. Technology frees us up to pursue novel things and enables our society to grow and advance into new territories. And yes, we will eventually build technology to replace us there too, but so we can venture again and explore spaces that were off limits before.

But we also need to be careful AI does not replace our uniqueness. What worth is a degree if it was obtained by implanting AI-generated text in the assignments? What worth is an AI-generated idea if intellectual power, cognitive muscles, and character virtues are lacking to carry this idea out? What worth is an AI-generated opinion if the evidence, reasoning, and logic behind it is lacking? The more we allow technology to replace and eventually remove unique (and irreplicable) voices out of our society, the more our societies become weakened and increasingly vulnerable to all kinds of corruption and dreadful acts.

So next time you reach out to an AI tool to do something for you, ask if it is helping you express your voice—hidden in the depths of your soul—or if it is keeping your voice silent and replacing it. Does it challenge your thought in a way you haven’t been challenged before? Is it causing you to reach out and help others in a way only you can do?

We must embrace technology, because it is here to stay, and learn to use it for our own good. Technology, innovation, and breakthroughs are aids along our unique journey and adventure of recognising, exploring, and expressing our unique gifts, skills, dreams, aspirations, and desires—a life-long journey of being and becoming all that we were destined to be.