“The quietest power transition in history has begun.”
“Have you ever used ChatGPT?”
At the moment you input a command and verify the result, you are issuing instructions to artificial intelligence. Even a single usage experience signifies stepping into the power structure of the AI era.
Artificial intelligence is redrawing the boundaries of power. There are those who give commands and those who receive them, with a clear, odorless boundary of technology lying in between. With generative AI like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini becoming commonplace, a societal structure of commanding class and receiving class is emerging.
The World Economic Forum predicts that within the next five years, a quarter of all jobs will transform, and up to 26 million jobs will disappear. Companies view AI not as a mere tool but as a core asset for strategy formulation and decision-making support. The important thing is what you can command AI to do.
Individuals who give commands understand the limits of technology and learn how to make the most of it. They identify both the errors and possibilities of AI while bridging its gaps with the emotional judgments and unstructured information that only humans can provide.
Creativity, empathy, and complex decision-making abilities are key assets for this class. They view AI as a tool, not a threat. While automation handles repetitive tasks, they focus on more creative and strategic undertakings.
It’s noteworthy that major universities worldwide are revamping their curricula. Harvard, Stanford, and MIT are shifting towards education centered on logic, debate, and design thinking, while Silicon Valley emphasizes a reading-focused curriculum with limited IT device use to restore unique human thinking abilities.
On the other hand, there is an increasing number of individuals who depend on AI’s answers or are under its control. They use it conveniently because AI handles complex tasks for them. The problem is that this is where it ends.
If you just accept the answers without knowing what or why you are asked, your thinking stops. If you don’t create questions, you can’t command. Using technology is different from directing it. Many are currently paused at this boundary.
For example, you can ask ChatGPT to write an article, but you don’t explain what perspective it should take or why that direction is significant. AI makes it fast and convenient, but it prevents thinking. If this repeats, we become people who rely on tools, not those who use them.
The problem lies in the education system. It’s still an education geared towards finding the right answer. The top students are those who memorize well and solve quickly within the set framework. However, AI excels at those abilities, doing it more accurately and quickly. It’s an area humans can’t win.
Society has taught them ‘how to use technology,’ but not ‘the power to handle technology.’ Instead of consuming results, they must create questions and move to a position that involves decision-making. Otherwise, AI becomes the ‘decider,’ and humans remain as followers of those decisions.
Customer service is being replaced by chatbots. Generative models draft and even edit content. Traders are being displaced by algorithms. Repetitive and rule-based jobs like legal assistants, accountants, teachers, and drivers are directly targeted by AI.
AI has passed the bar exam in the U.S., and its diagnostic accuracy in the medical field has been reported to surpass that of human specialists. Autonomous vehicles are also replacing actual drivers. Companies like Waymo and Zoox have commercialized robotaxi services that operate without humans.
Higher education and high salaries no longer guarantee protection. In fact, high-income professionals performing standardized tasks like data analysis or document work are more directly targeted by AI.
Now, there is only one question. Who commands AI? Conversely, who acts according to that command? Technology does not operate the same for everyone.
Only a few develop AI. But now anyone can converse with AI and have it perform tasks. The problem is knowing ‘how’ to say things to achieve the desired results. Whoever knows what expressions work and how to frame questions will seize the opportunity. If you don’t know, you’ll have to follow what’s predetermined within the created system.
This is a time that requires social consensus beyond mere technology. Understanding and utilizing AI knowledge becomes a new survival condition rather than fearing it.
Technology is not neutral. A deep chasm is forming between those who handle it and those who can’t. It is clear in which direction we must move. Will you be the commander, or remain among those commanded?