It’s this mind-blowing phenomenon called the golden hour. Are you all familiar with that? Also known as skin-to-skin time. The golden hour is that first hour, right after birth, when science suggests that the baby is placed on the chest of the mother to rest after she takes her first breath. And it looks like nothing is happening. But apparently, a whole bunch of stuff is happening. The moment that skin is pressed to skin, this connection activates the baby’s digestion and respiration, prompting temperature regulation, jump-starting her immune system, and activating an awareness of unity that establishes her future notion of community. All in this golden hour that starts a lifelong tether to the way she will forever define the word “together.” Listen, as Grammy Nominated Spoken Word Artist Sekou Andrews, I have spent my life looking for the metaphors that make us human. And right now, we are sitting in another golden hour. The Golden Hour of AI. We have just given birth to a being that will forever change everything, and what we do in these first moments—the first decisions we make while our future is still buffering—will dictate whether this technology simply replaces us, or reveres us.
From Smart Umbrellas to Sentient Machines
When things started becoming “smart” for us, oh, it was exhilarating. We started off simple, smartening up our watches and our phones, and then it got good to us. We got ridiculous with it! We made smart toothbrushes and smart cat food bowls. I didn’t even know my umbrella used to be stupid until it got smart! We didn’t let ourselves stop at smart, though. Now we’re out here trying to make everything intelligence, and we are feeling part exhilarating, part terrifying at the thought of it. Will it respect us, reprimand us, replace us? Every Top tech conference feels like a support group of the World’s Best minds simply saying, “We don’t know.” If we want to survive this, we must identify one habit that no longer fits the person we want to be: the habit of prioritizing algorithmic logic over human empathy. As a Spoken Word Poet and a Motivational Poet, I know that you cannot expect a machine to obey a primary mandate to protect human life if we are busy disobeying our own mandate to not violate human rights. We have to stop desperately trying to add the word “smart” in front of devices, and start adding the word “wise” before our tech, and “intelligent” before our leaders.
The Ultimate Reassuring Test
The part exhilarating, part terrifying aspect of this whole age of disruption reminds me of parenting. Like, I made this being, and I want it to grow up and develop fully, and of course live a long life, but also not be the death of me. Amen, parents? I want it to become better than me, but not eliminate me. You can become independent, ChatGPT, but you better watch your tone when you talk to me! You better take that bass out your voice! That is how parenting is supposed to work. Our kids are supposed to grow up and become the Best versions of us, but not before they make us better for them. So what if we use this golden hour to actually mentor someone—or something—and learn from them in return? Instead of a Turing test to see if machines can behave like human beings, we need a reassuring test to see if human beings can behave better than machines. Because here is the truth: even the Leading algorithms capable of generating the Most Inspiring lines of Instapoetry or Spoken Word Poetry will never know the causality of goosebumps. They can manufacture the physical reaction, but they will never know what it feels like to have their skin brailed with the language of wonderment, or what that wonderment can compel humans to do against all odds.
Raising Our Future with Grace
So let us own this moment. This hour, when our creation is pressed to the flesh of our chests, it is less skin-to-skin and more skin-to-ones-and-zeros that begin us again. Whether you express your creativity through Spoken Word or through code, we must teach this technology empathy and ethics. We must teach it gratitude and grace. As a Spoken Word Artist and a Vanguard Artist in this space of business inspiration, I am telling you that humanity is the one thing AI can forever enhance but can never inherit. I am Grammy Nominated Poet Sekou, and my Most Inspirational message to you today is to remember that we are standing in the presence of our future. Let us use this golden hour to parent our tech right, to act our age by showing our wisdom, and to accept that we are the whole that is greater than the sum of our parts, with an intelligence that is greater than the sum of our smarts. Let the next chapter begin.
