Hi Reader,

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Welcome to Rev Up for the Week, where each week, the 'human-me' writes (by typing my fingers on a real keyboard), in reaction to things that have happened to me that week, all in the hope that it might help kick-start your Monday.

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Over the last couple of weeks, I've been receiving emails inviting me to deliver a keynote at a major conference. Nothing surprising for me there, as it's what I do. But what was surprising was that it was for a big Christian conference happening in Australia in just a few weeks' time. We'd sent a couple of emails back to them explaining that I probably wasn't a good fit, that I didn't think I could make the logistics work and so on, but also keeping open the possibility that if they were hiring me with a specific interest in me talking about my book 'KIND', then maybe we could make something work virtually, and it would be a big new audience for the book. My assistant Emilie had kept the line open, but it just all felt a bit 'off', and we'd even had a chat where we're speculated that it could be a scam, even though they had a legit-looking website and there weren't any obvious signs that we could point to.

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Then late last week, Emilie sent me this. Turns out Bathurst Church wasn't real. It was a bunch of AI characters, trying to scam speakers out of their money.

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Whilst I'd had nothing like the level of contact with 'them' that the author of this post did, what's terrifying here is the level of detail, and the ease with which scammers can now use AI tools to super-charge their scams. With elaborate characters, storylines and identities all made to seem 'real', just imagine how much more believable this will all be in six months or a year's time with the exponential rise of AI's capabilities.

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Elsewhere this week, a heart-warming video of a silverback Gorilla at a zoo handing a child back to his mother after he'd fallen into the Gorilla enclosure has been shared by millions online. And of course, it was all entirely fake. Maybe you fell for it? Even if you didn't, the chances are we've all already fallen for a similar video without even realising.

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And it's got me thinking about the skills that we will need to protect ourselves in the years ahead, as AI at work becomes a powerful tool in the right hands, but a dangerous one in the wrong hands. And as AI can increasingly take care of the load, what are the skills that we humans will need as we work with it?

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I've been thinking about these three things recently:

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• Critical thinking skills - it's never been more important to verify sources of information. When it's entirely possible to create entire fake science institutes in seconds, the credibility of information will really matter. Asking "where has this come from?", "who's behind this?", "who funds this?" and "could there be an ulterior motive to this information?" will become essential (side note - most conspiracy theorists don't have good answers to these questions, so they just resort to "It's Bill Gates!").

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• Discernment and taste - figuring out what 'AI slop' feels like and routing away from that will be a human skill of the highest order. The best designers and writers will endure because they're offering something original, tasteful and distinctive - something AI can't create. If you have taste and sound judgement to make skilful decisions around this, you'll have a job.

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• Messiness - one of the things that gives life colour is its' inherent 'messiness'. AI is derivitive by nature, and can't have original or messy thoughts. By being authentically yourself, your ideas and work will appeal to people way more than the AI 'beige' that will fill your working world. The messiness of humanity is what will stand out in a perfect but soulless world.

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Of course, this is such a new area for us all, but those are just a couple of thoughts around where we are with AI right now. I'll keep thinking on this subject, and would love you to hit reply and share your thoughts, too. How is AI impacting your work, and what are the hopes and fears you have for it?

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And in the meantime, the AI version of me is available to help coach you for free, and the human version of me is available for distinctive, imperfect and heartfelt keynotes where I sweat real sweat, feel real nerves but try not to let them show, and make genuine human connections to inspire your human audience.

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Have a great week,

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Graham

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