Early last week, President Biden issued an executive order on artificial intelligence (AI), directing “the most sweeping actions ever taken to protect Americans from the potential risks of AI systems.” On Thursday, Elon Musk spoke at the AI Safety Summit in London, where he said that he sees AI as “the most disruptive force in history.”

It seems as if every five or 10 years a new crisis is invented that threatens to end the world as we know it. When I was a young kid in the late sixties, the crisis of the day was overpopulation. 

For a time, it was generally supported by leading thinkers that overpopulation would lead to the destruction of humanity through a series of related causes and effects. This was not just promoted in popular culture; it was accepted and supported by the “experts.” It is interesting that, even within one lifetime, fear of underpopulation has now entered the conversation.

For me, the most dangerous people are the ones who are competent in one area of life but who are very comfortable pontificating on other areas where they lack reliable domain knowledge or expertise. For example, it seems as if Elon Musk is also concerned about underpopulation. Fortunately, he is rising to the occasion and doing his part by procreating at will with whomever he likes (oh well, the travails of serving humanity…).

One of the more popular current crises is the threat of artificial intelligence. Without overinflating my credentials to speak on the topic of artificial intelligence, I do need to mention that I have been directly or tangentially involved with it for over 20 years. Expert system technology or AI was the basis for the first product I developed. 

The question we have to ask about AI is whether it truly represents a significantly larger shift in technology advancement than, say, the Industrial Revolution or possibly even the introduction of the personal computer. The specific claim by tech leaders is that AI will dramatically decrease the number of jobs that are available to people. (I’ll have to remember this the next time I have my house painted or architect a software platform or ride my bike). 

The bottom line is that AI will not affect every aspect of how we live. AI fits neatly into a long-term trend of a shift from manual labor to labor requiring higher skills. Can someone make a credible argument that AI is more of a threat than the mechanical reaper or the internal combustion engine? I have not heard any such position supported by real data or even real judgment that remotely proves that AI is a larger proportional risk than any other significant technological advancement over the past 200 years. 

But, importantly, just as there is not always total truth in every good argument, there may be some truth in exaggeration. Not just because of AI but because of the shift in society toward service and information jobs, we are faced with a serious challenge to help people get better trained for an information economy. Unfortunately, there is a large swath of good people who have been left out of the blessings of the advancement of our technology age.

There is no doubt that the disparity between the haves and have nots in this country is growing too wide. Upward trending wealth inequality is a fact. I don’t see any quick remedies to this, and I did not see a solution offered in the president’s executive order. To keep up with the needs of the evolving workplace, people will need better and more equal access to reasonably priced education.

I can only speak for myself, but I don’t need another crisis to worry about. I’d rather focus on the real ones.

Brian Hamilton is a nationally recognized entrepreneur and the chairman of LiveSwitch. He founded Sageworks (now Abrigo), the country’s first fintech company, and is the original architect of its artificial intelligence technology, which has helped millions of business owners translate complex financial information. Hamilton’s economic and financial analysis have been widely featured in the press including USA Today, The Wall St. Journal, Fox and CNBC. He is also the star of Free Enterprise, an award-winning show on ABC based on the Inmates to Entrepreneurs program he founded.