AI may develop incredible intelligence, but it never will be embodied.
Since November 2022, chatGPT and other generative AI tools have swept the planet, inspiring both hope and fear about the future of humanity. Already, artificial intelligence is replacing human writers and editors, creating music using a fake Drake, publishing books, acing the SATs, and spreading misinformation. Scary or exciting as it may seem to you, a singularity is occurring right now in this very moment between humans and machines.
But there is one critical factor that isn’t being discussed. And it could have a huge impact on the future of business. Here’s the thing: No matter how smart AI gets, no matter how savvy at mimicking human speech, emotion and artistic creation AI becomes, it will never be embodied.
Although we often think of mind, body and soul as separate entities, we are fundmentally embodied ... [+]
Machines don’t have bodies. They will never fall in love and have their hearts broken. They’ll never feel hunger or cold. They’ll never howl in pain. They’ll never quiver at a lover’s touch on their neck. They’ll never gaze at a sunset and sense their mortality. They’ll never squeeze their child and feel the immensity of that connection. They’ll never hug a friend during a time of need and feel comforted. They’ll never inhale forest air and feel renewed. They’ll never sob over the death of a parent until their eyes are swollen.
Herein lies an immense opportunity for future entrepreneurs: The business of embodiment. While tech companies harness AI to both trick our brains into believing false truths and cure devastating epidemics and climate change in record time (we hope), what will the rest of us humans do? We will go on living. And more than ever, I predict, we will be driven to make living about being in our bodies, enjoying the physical and emotional aspects of our human existence.
The past few decades have seen a huge uptick in money spent on wellness, including exercise classes and equipment (think Peloton’s meteoric rise), yoga and spiritual retreats, juicing and Keto and every other diet trend. According to a report by the Global Wellness Institute, the global wellness industry has grown at a 6.4% annual rate from $2.5 trillion in 2012 to $4.5 trillion in 2018. That’s more than twice as fast as global economic growth altogether.
Our bodies are a gift. Our bodies are how we experience emotion, pleasure and pain.
Some of this spending is driven purely by a brain-based desire to be immortal. But also, it is about embracing more fully the most human part of ourselves: Our bodies.
Already we can spot the trends. People quitting social media so they can be more present in the moment, less obsessed with recording the moment in order to share it later. Teens giving up their smart phones, choosing instead to read books and hang out talking in the park. The mainstreaming of erotic toys, pole dancing classes for middle aged women, and other sexual exploration. A massive spike in the popularity of wellness retreats.
Desire for getting in touch with our bodies will only increase as machines do more of the thinking for us. So will the desire to get in touch with each other – up close and in person, messy and real. We will seek out ways to escape from technology, the metaverse, and machine-generated intelligence in order to connect profoundly with nature, develop family and friendships with actual humans, and live in our bodies – to live embodied.
