Today’s knowledge workers may soon collaborate directly with tomorrow’s AI in the coming intelligence explosion.
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Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei recently warned AI could eliminate half of all entry-level white-collar jobs: “Most of them are unaware that this is about to happen,” Amodei said. “It sounds crazy, and people just don’t believe it … We, as the producers of this technology, have a duty and an obligation to be honest about what is coming,’” according to Fortune.
Even if you haven’t seen this exact statement, you’ve no doubt heard concerns from friends and peers. Many share the same worry: that AI will replace their jobs. Until the 2020s, such fears focused mostly on blue-collar work like truck driving. In 2019, The Hill discussed the issue during the presidential race. “During a rally yesterday, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden spoke to a crowd in Derry, N.H., a town that many miners call home. He acknowledged the economic setbacks and job insecurity that coal miners face these days and gave them some advice: learn to code.”
Flash forward to 2025. Machines can now code themselves and AI threatens knowledge work. This means accountants, lawyers, even programmers have reason to fear for their own job security.
Or do they? What if Amodei and so many other pundits got it all wrong?
Is AI Anxiety Misplaced?
That’s the contrarian view of Dr. Ben Goertzel, CEO and co-founder of trueAGI, a company that views the arrival of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) as a major opportunity for individuals and enterprises who choose to embrace it early in its development curve. “The narrative of mass displacement is oversimplified,” he told me when he sat down for an interview. “What we’re building isn’t meant to replace researchers and analysts but to amplify human cognitive capabilities by orders of magnitude. Think of it as giving every knowledge worker their own team of Ph.D.-level assistants who never sleep and can process information at superhuman speeds.” He adds, “Even if AGI ultimately does replace knowledge workers, during the transitional period there will be many fascinating and rewarding ways to work with early-stage AGIs to create and deliver value together.”
Goertzel is no newcomer to AI. He’s been studying the feasibility of AGI for years, appearing on major platforms like the Lex Fridman Podcast and The Joe Rogan Experience to discuss his findings and insights. A longtime proponent of achieving machine sentience, he envisions an AGI that is benevolent, ethical, safe, and trustful, according to his organization’s BEST framework. Goertzel has stated they have already achieved a “1,000,000× speed breakthrough in their cognitive architecture and are currently piloting AGI components in sectors like finance, healthcare, and cybersecurity.”
It should be noted some AI experts like George Gilder, co-founder of the Discovery Institute, doubt we will ever achieve AGI. Others, like Andrew NG, have cautioned the public not to believe its arrival is at all imminent.
Goertzel doesn’t think this way.
He’s even of the mind we may indeed achieve the Holy Grail of AI, Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI), in a relatively short time span. “The transition from AGI to ASI could indeed happen in months once we crack recursive self-improvement. Enterprises need to start building ‘AI-ready’ infrastructures now—not just technically, but organizationally. This means developing clear protocols for human-AI collaboration, establishing ethical guidelines for autonomous decision-making, and most critically, ensuring no single entity controls the keys to superintelligence.”
So, does today’s anxious knowledge worker have a role in tomorrow’s intelligence explosion?
The Coming Future of Human-AI Symbiosis?
That’s a (refreshingly) big yes, according to Goertzel.
He’s even proposed a timeline for the transition. In the next two years we shall witness “AGI systems handling routine analysis, data processing, and initial hypothesis generation.” Human knowledge workers won’t be eclipsed by machine counterparts. Instead, they will make the leap to “higher-level roles: defining problems, making value judgments and managing the human-AI collaboration.”
The last two years of this decade will be even more seismically disruptive as work drastically transforms, Goertzel believes. Humans won’t be able to compete with synthetic minds processing mental processes with breathtaking rapidity and cogency. Instead, we will function in a more collaborative function. “We’ll focus on defining values, purposes, and directions for our AGI collaborators.”
Reflecting on this situation, it’s been said the perfect time to plant a tree was yesterday. Second best is today. Something similar goes for companies wishing to remain relevant in the coming Intelligence Age. Goertzel therefore advises businesses ready themselves for the “human-AI symbiosis” transition sooner rather than later to not be caught flat-footed.
Both a pragmatist and a theorist, he suggests at least three ways companies can begin preparing now for a staff composed of knowledge workers 2.0. and their AI counterparts.
1) Build Smarter Systems
Businesses would do well to augment their operations to accommodate many types of artificial intelligence. It’s not enough to embrace generative AI; for instance, image makers assisting marketing departments. Companies need to make way for AI that can think through ideas and concepts like a human would—if they possessed a superior intellect.
2) Update How Work Gets Accomplished
It’s a mistake to relegate AI to merely automate tasks. Instead, companies should embrace intelligent agents that can do things “1,000x faster and better.” Goertzel therefore recommends business leaders “drop quarterly planning cycles in favor of continuous strategic adaptation guided by AGI systems that can simulate millions of scenarios in real-time.”
3) Establish Ground Rules Now. Before It’s Too Late
No one really knows what life will look like should this intelligence explosion really come to pass. That’s why it’s helpful to establish clear boundaries on decision making before the genie is totally out of the bottle. The last thing a business wants is a super smart AI that is not value-aligned with humans and in complete control of its operations.
A Hopeful Tomorrow?
In an age so defined by pessimism about the future of work, trueAGI’s vision of collaboration between human and machine is surprisingly positive. And promising. It points to an optimistic future much more in line with upbeat sci-fi lore like Star Trek than the dystopian gloom of 2001: A Space Odyssey and Ex Machina. It suggests a renaissance of productivity in which people are freed to do more with their own capabilities than ever imagined. Whether we do reach AGI or ASI, the truth is, computers will continue to become ever more sophisticated and capable.
Here’s to humanity doing the same to not just keep up, but thrive.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelashley/2025/10/29/how-businesses-can-prepare-for-human-ai-work-in-the-intelligence-age/
