I don’t know about you, but when it comes to AI, most people I’ve spoken to lately are sitting somewhere between “I’m worried about the future of humanity” and “I’m excited about the potential of AI.”
Are you there too?
Same.
Until I watched a movie last weekend.
Mountainhead with Steve Carell is a satirical comedy about four Tech Bros changing the world order – without the world getting a vote in the matter.
The film starts with the comedic use of ridiculous TechBroTalk then spirals quickly into Lord-of-the-Flies-like darkness.
The reviews said ‘disappointing’ and I agree – but not for the same reason as theirs.
Why did it disappoint me? Because it was meant to.
As a movie, it could have stirred me; provoked anger or sparked debate. Instead, I found myself a detached, almost apathetic audience.
This movie made my own behaviour part of the satire, not just the behaviour of those on screen.
I am being detached and almost apathetic about Techbros. About deepfakes, AI threatening to kill those who attempt to switch it off, a desire to upload human consciousness into the cloud and live forever, and mass layoffs paving the way for a work-free utopia.
The film calls out many of these examples but in such a normalised, casual way that you remain apathetic about them – as most of us are doing in real life. The way art mirrored life went way deeper than the commentary on an apathetic society – with eerie accuracy too.
Fake News. In the movie, deepfakes are causing violence, hatred and cultural collapse and anyone who raises what’s happening as pretty bad, gets told it’s fake news. As the person telling you that it is the deep fake expert, they must be right, so it’s all alright. Right?
Pretentious rebranding. Our imaginary Tech-Bro’s are magnificent at adopting pretentious terminology to create an illusion of expertise and intellectual superiority. In real life:
- Meta is setting targets for 50:1 staff-to-manager ratios and replacing managers with pod-leaders, org leaders and Player-Coaches. It all sounds revolutionary until you compare pod-leaders to front-line leaders, org-leaders to middle managers, and player-coaches to every middle manager who’s been operating both on the pitch and the sideline for years.
- Jack Dorsey sheds 40% of Block staff and states that all 6000 can report directly to him. It also sounds revolutionary, until you learn that Zappo’s and Bayer did this in 2013 and 2024, and both brought their managers back within the year (to far less fanfare). Jack is reportedly bringing some back within only 4 days.
Pretentious Rebranding is just KoolAid, not a real revolution. Why are we drinking it?
Virtue signalling: In the film, the ability to rationalise collateral damage as a good thing, to shrug off the killing of babies, or murdering a fellow TechBro is so intellectualised and justified that it starts to feel like a righteous pathway for the greater good. In real life, perhaps this is how Musk’s ‘work-optional’ world will occur, where in ten years time work will be just a hobby. OpenAI’s Sam Altman confirmed that artificial intelligence will cause “real pain” for workers, to the extent that it may necessitate the introduction of a universal basic income. Is it normal to signal – with such glowing positivity – that your work will mean so many jobs are lost that a global wage subsidy will be required for a chance at poverty-line survival?
Our No1 asset, or not: unquestionably, the most disposable asset in the movie is other people. As uncomfortable as it makes me, this may be where we are heading too – if how we intend to manage ‘our no1 asset’ according to Jack Dorsey or Mark Zuckerberg is to be believed. If Jack has all 6000 Block employees report directly to him, he’ll be lucky to allocate each of them 30mins a year if he does nothing but people management. Luckily his real-life techbro Mark has the answer – he is currently training an AI clone of himself to interact with and provide feedback to employees. So our ‘no1 asset’, who has a known preference for 1:1 coaching and development, will never interact with a real manager. Are people no longer our no1 asset?
Ethical AI. I know what you’re thinking – the government will save us with ethical AI. Except in the movie, they don’t. Instead they take down world governments with rolling brown-outs. In real life, OpenAI’s plan to pit World Governments Against Each Other suggests that ChatGPT isn’t going to either. Then they simply subsume ethical AI into unethical AI to provide the illusion of governance. In real life GlassWing has been introduced to attempt to govern Claude Mythos, an AI so terrifying its own creators don’t dare release it. Should we be more concerned?
So – disappointed? Yes. In the film? No.
- Firstly, I’m not going to take the ‘be calm’ advice that’s circulating currently. That’s a euphemism for ‘do nothing’, and as an already apathetic audience member, that needs to stop.
- Secondly, I’m not going to be a doom-looping de-cel (an insulting TechBro term for a progress decelerator). These are the people who recently firebombed Sam Altman’s home, which also needs to stop.
Instead, I’m going to take my own advice – advice that many of you have heard before.
Be deliberate.
Like many leaders, I’ve been stuck somewhere between ‘I’m worried about the future of humanity’ and ‘I’m excited about the potential of AI’.
Between the two, I stopped being deliberate in my response, and proactively owning what happens in my sphere of control.
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Rebecca is Australia’s pre-eminent advocate for B-suite leadership – the expert in developing hi-impact B-Suite leadership at both a team and individual level.
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