Prioritizing People In The Age Of AI

As a teenager growing up in Kansas, I spent one summer working in the cornfields. From five in the morning until midday, I worked as a corn detasseler, which means I removed the pollen-producing tassels from the tops of corn plants.

I was not very good at it.

By the end of the first day, my neck was covered in cuts from the sharp edges of the corn leaves. The people working around me were older, faster, and more experienced. It’s a summer I will not forget. But the memory that sticks with me most vividly is the day we arrived at a new field where I noticed a large piece of farm equipment in the next field over.

I asked the foreman what it was.

“That machine is doing what you’re doing right now,” he told me. Then, seeing the look on my face, he added, “Don’t worry. You’re better at it. You can do it with less waste.”