Hello, AI enthusiasts from around the world.

Welcome to this week's newsletter for the AI and the Future of Work podcast.

Some might say knowledge is becoming superfluous. If that is true, then education, as an institution, is becoming superfluous too. 

At first, this comment may sound provocative but when you look at the speed of change, it reflects something real.

Many people are questioning the role of knowledge, but fewer are discussing the consequences. Today’s conversation explores how AI is changing the paradigms of knowledge, and what we can do as a society to ensure our future remains human-first. 

Let’s dive into this week’s highlights 🚀

🎙️New Podcast Episode With Trond Undheim, Author of The Platinum Workforce

Knowledge, as the foundation of humanity, has always evolved.  Sometimes it evolves when it encounters new concepts and ideas. Other times, it evolves because our understanding of authority over knowledge changes, from religion to science to politics. 

Every time this happens, humanity’s paradigms shift. 

But what happens when the change is so aggressive that we have no idea where it is taking us? 

The notion that knowledge resides in canonical literature built by humans is out the window. 

This evolution began with Google. Suddenly, we had the world’s knowledge at our fingertips, but it still depended on us to process it.

Trond Undheim believes that, with AI, we have entered a new era where knowledge will continuously reshape itself at unprecedented scales.

And that changes what it means to be valuable as a human.

Trond Undheim is a futurist, innovation expert, and research scholar at Stanford University whose work spans governments, startups, and leading academic institutions. 

His ideas have been featured in Forbes, The Boston Globe, Fast Company, Fortune, and MIT News, to name a few. 

He holds a PhD in AI and cognition from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and is the author of eight books, including The Platinum Workforce, which explores how to train and hire for the twenty-first century’s industrial transitions. 

Trond sat down with PeopleReign CEO Dan Turchin to explain how, in the era of AI, knowledge no longer plays the same role it once did. System awareness, he argues, is the only knowledge that truly counts now.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Why Trond says knowledge has become superfluous, and what that claim means for how we define expertise in the AI era.

• Why cutting junior hires to cash in on AI efficiencies is a recipe for failure within your organization. 

• What “system awareness” looks like in practice, and how it changes the way leaders think about skills and careers. 

• Why socio-technical thinking matters, and how treating humans and machines as mutually constitutive systems reshapes AI design and governance. 

• Why humanity is unprepared to operate at gigascale, and what megaproject research suggests about the cost of that gap. 

• How The Platinum Workforce maps twelve durable skill domains, from socio-technical capabilities to maker and maintenance skills, that will outlast multiple AI waves. 

Listen to the full conversation to hear why Trond believes system awareness is the only knowledge that will survive the AI era, and what that means for every leader, every organization, and every worker navigating what comes next.

📖 AI Fun Fact Article

The topic of AI has likely come up in conversations you’ve had at the dinner table, around the water cooler, or even at the gym. But would you be able to estimate precisely how people feel about it? 

That’s what Michelle Faverio and Emma Kikuchi explore in their article for Pew Research, based on new data about how Americans view AI. 

Half of U.S. adults say that the increased use of AI in daily life has made them feel more concerned than excited. That number has grown from 37% in 2021, when Pew Research first started asking the same question. 

Perhaps even more surprising, only 10% of surveyed adults say they are more excited than concerned, compared to 18% in 2021. Additionally, 38% say they are equally concerned and excited. 

While Americans are more likely to say that AI will have a positive impact on medical care than a negative one, their views are more negative in other areas, such as education and how people do their jobs. 

Even though 65% of American workers still say they don’t use AI much or at all in their jobs, PeopleReign CEO Dan Turchin highlights the fact that U.S. adults don’t trust AI, which should come as no surprise. 

A very non-scientific survey of headlines confirms that most AI discussion is either about how the technology is enriching tech tycoons or how it is replacing jobs. By contrast, adults in every other country surveyed by Pew felt less threatened by AI, with South Korean and French adults feeling the most optimistic. 

In both countries, 49% of adults are more excited than concerned about AI, versus 38% in the U.S. Let’s shift the narrative. 

AI is giving us back at least an hour a day. As a thought exercise, think about what you’ll do with your extra hour. Consider spending more time with loved ones, enjoying the outdoors, pursuing a hobby, or being a better parent, spouse, or friend. 

AI only knows what we tell it, and it only does what we give it permission to do. Be vigilant and protect your data, but don’t fall victim to the narrative about what AI will do to you. Instead, focus on what AI will do with you and for you to make you a better human. 

Worth A Read 📚

Until next time, stay curious! 🤔

That's a Wrap for This Week!

This week’s conversation puts uncomfortable questions on the table: where are we going with AI? What will happen to knowledge? What will happen to us? 

The answers Trond offers are among the most thoughtful we've heard in recent conversations. The conclusion is clear: humans still have the ability to keep our world human-first. But what we do at work, and in our personal lives, will matter enormously in the years ahead.

We hope this conversation inspires you to question the assumptions shaping AI, so we can use it to build something worth building.