You Can’t Spell “Trust” with AI
Roger Lumpp
I help companies find Controller level talent on a permanent and/or interim basis. If you are a Controller (or aspire to be) we should know each other. I also love helping people find more fulfilling work.
First note, I am no expert on artificial intelligence (AI).
But…
I AM an expert at helping humans find fulfilling work.
I am also a devout contrarian, which means it takes me time to digest and believe pretty much anything I run into in the wild world we live in.
Including AI...
A buddy of mine Sundar Bandepalli first introduced me to natural language processing (NLP) and AI over 10 years ago.
He was building a use case that mirrored what today is known as Life 360 for parents looking to get a handle on the online lives of their children.
It was a very interesting concept and showed me what mattered:
The data (input to the AI model)
Who owned the data (controlled access)
Who built the algorithm / model (humans)
I could see how impressive NLP / AI use cases were going to be in the future, but I just couldn’t get over the idea that humans could inject bias…
The contrarian in me couldn’t get over the “Trust Hurdle” at that time.
Fast forward to today…
The complexity of the algorithms and speed at which Open.AI's Chat GPT and others can serve is a billion times more impressive.
A little over a week ago, the US announced a $500b investment in AI infrastructure...
Earlier this week China announced a faster, cheaper alternative to Open.AI with DeepSeek.
And today, Alibaba Group announced their model surpassed DeepSeek.
The race…
Is…
On.
But to where?
And from a job seekers perspective…
“How will this help me find a job I jump out of bed for in the morning?”
Right now, AI is simply making the already impersonal nature of job hunting online even more impersonal…
“Clean up my picture so it makes me look more professional”
As determined by whoever coded the filter...
“Write a cover letter for this job description using my resume”
So I sound like an average of the millions of cover letters they fed the model...
“Rank this pile of resumes using keywords”
So we can kick out 75% of candidates even though unqualified applicants are hacking this method by using keywords...
The result of AI in the job hunt is you sound like everyone else, don’t look like yourself when you show up to the interview or got the interview because you loaded keywords…
No thanks!
When it comes to finding meaningful / fulfilling work, a key component is the “gut feel” we develop throughout our lives.
The uniqueness of our life experience in general…
The jobs we’ve held over time…
The people we’ve worked with / for…
The teams we were on that accomplished INCREDIBLE things…
Our hopes, dreams and vision for the future…
No matter how much money is thrown at AI, it will never replace the uniqueness of YOU.
Which is why I remain skeptical of the role AI will play (now or ever) in jobs that require a human element.
It’s a big Trust Hurdle to overcome…
Don’t get me wrong, AI is already and will continue to take commoditized work and make it obsolete.
But it will never replace YOU.
Trust me... ;)
Roger Lumpp spends his working hours hunting opportunities for independent workers in the Chicago market. He is the creator and host of The Next Pro Gig Podcast which empowers independent/freelance workers of all disciplines with the tools, frameworks, knowledge and ideas to help them thrive in their careers as independent prof. He firmly believes WORKERS will gain more and more control over the independent employment conversation as we move into the “future of work” and is fully committed to helping aspiring, new and tenured independents maximize their go-to-market strategies to find their next gig, FASTER.
Fractional or Interim Controller for small to mid size privately held or PE backed companies across many industries including service, SaaS and non profit.
6moThis adds such perspective to the whole AI movement and lack of personal communication in today's world. Thanks for voicing what I am sure many of us feel.