Don’t Panic

Artificial intelligence and human intelligence differ not in degree but in kind; they’re different phenomena that happen to share a word: intelligence.

AI excels at pattern recognition across vast datasets. It can analyse millions of medical images, play chess at superhuman levels, and generate coherent text by prediction. But it doesn’t understand what it’s doing. When AI diagnoses cancer, it recognises patterns in pixels without comprehending disease, mortality, or fear. It processes information without experiencing meaning.

Human intelligence, by contrast, is embodied and contextual. We understand because we’ve lived in bodies that feel pain, joy, hunger, and exhaustion. We grasp metaphor because we’ve physically experienced what it means to carry a burden or feel light-hearted. Our intelligence isn’t just computational: it’s somatic, emotional, and social. We learn not just from data but from making mistakes, feeling embarrassed, being surprised and forming relationships.

AI has no stakes in the game. It doesn’t care about its answers, fear being wrong, or hope to be understood. It lacks intentionality, that incredible human capacity to be about something, to direct consciousness toward meaning and purpose.

Perhaps most crucially, human intelligence is creative in a way AI isn’t. We generate novel ideas-and ideas for novels-by combining experiences, emotions, and knowledge in ways we don’t always understand ourselves. We have intuitions, hunches, and insights that emerge from the mysterious depths of consciousness. And by standing at a bus-stop for a delayed No.39.

AI can augment human capability brilliantly.

But. No, don’t panic. But Be Human. Every Minute of Every Day.