AI Proof Your Career With Improv

I’ve been wondering if improv isn’t one of the few fields that offer us mere humans some means of defending our relevancy. Of course we live in a time when things are changing very quickly, it is said more quickly than ever before, so only a fool will tell you they know what the future holds. Even so, there’s reason to wonder if improv offers lessons that could help you build an AI proof career.  

This teacher is unlikely to be replaced by his AI assistant.

WHAT?!? Is that possible? Could a subset of the theater arts, long famous for being one of the most impoverished industries a professional might tie themselves to, suddenly emerge as one of the most profitable in the age of AI? 

It is perhaps not a likely outcome, but far more possible now than at any point in my lifetime. After all, from its inception, improv has been all about how we humans interact with each other. Improv is about being human with other humans. 

Perhaps there is no space in such an art form for AI?

The wonderful project, Improv With Robots, launched recently by improviser Thomas Middleditch, would beg to differ. But it is hard to know what it augurs precisely… Sure, perhaps there is a role in improv for Artificial Intelligence to fill, but to me it seems the project proves that role is the exception rather than the rule.

Imagine this scene, (my current favorite) without Thomas in it? Would the scene be enjoyable at all if it were bereft of a human being, created instead by two AIs mimicking us? I wouldn’t watch it.

And it’s not just true with online improv videos. There are a wide variety of similar professions that even I, an avid fan of AI, am only interested in if humans are front and center.

For example, I only want to see humans play professional sports.

I know that soon 11 robots could most likely outperform 11 humans on a football field, just like I know a train is faster than Usain Bolt. But why would I care to watch that? I’m just not curious whether I, or any human, can lift more than an elevator… 

But tell me that Mike Tyson is fighting a 20 something year old punk? Or Caitlin Clark has somehow brought a women’s basketball program that never belonged in the NCCA finals to the finals two years in a row? Or that Lebron James is somehow gathering 20 rebounds in a single game when he is almost 40?

Well, then I tune in.

In very much the same way, I don’t care to read poetry or fiction or plays written by AI. It’s not bigotry against the artificial that drives that nonchalance, it’s just that if the art springs from an automaton it precludes the point of art: one human being expressing their truth to another.

And don’t get me wrong, I’m fine with an AI writing copy for advertisements, providing artwork for the same, or carrying out any number of mundane tasks. AI can do my taxes or drive my car, I’m fine with that and I think most of us are.

But I won’t be spending a Sunday afternoon gazing at portraits in the Modern Museum of AI Art in order to ponder my predicament as a mortal on this spinning rock. In the same vein, I won’t be worshipping with the assistance of an AI priest, or pour my soul out to an AI therapist. And I certainly won’t ever fall in love with a chatbot.

My wife and I disagree about that last assertion. She rightly points out that several loud individuals have already professed their love for their chatbots. Eh, maybe so, or perhaps these men (it’s gotta only be men who would do something so dumb, right?) are a bit confused.

I’d suggest they must be, because all the things I’m uninterested in seeing AI fulfill have something in common: They are special because they are human.

There is something very special about being the best basketball team in any given year, triumphing over the skill and grit of every other team of humans. There is something special about sharing your grief with another human and having them understand it. And (unless you’re a man {men, I’m just joking!}) there is something special about falling in love with another human being and having them fall in love with you.

In all these instances it is the involvement of humans that makes them special. 

This is where improv comes back in. If humanity is what makes things special in the age of AI then what role will an art form all about humanity suddenly assume? Improv teaches you to collaborate with humans, teaches you to communicate with humans, to listen to them, connect with them, support them, and if you listen to Martin de Maat (and why wouldn’t you?) love them. 

It may be that millions of jobs are about to be eliminated by AI, but who will choose who stays and who is replaced? Humans will do that.

And what will separate one employee from another? Many specifics may come into play, but I would suspect an employee’s ability to connect on a human level might be very important. 

If it were up to you who to keep between two accountants, who would you pick to save from banishment to a dismal job market? The accountant who is most efficient? Or how about the one whose family you know about, who has made you laugh more than once, supports your ideas and listens intently when you speak? You know, the accountant you feel a connection to and care about?

Improv teaches you all the skills you need in order to be that accountant.

Ten years ago, if you were an anesthesiologist you were set. Impossibly difficult to earn your credentials, a shortage of professionals with your qualifications and quite a healthy average salary. What difference would it make if you looked the hospital administrator in the eyes when meeting?

I’d wager it is about to make a big difference when each hospital needs to decide which handful of anesthesiologists to pick to oversee the AI versions of their current position. AI models which will never make a mathematics mistake, never complain, never get tired, but will need to be managed by a few humans for the foreseeable future. A few humans who will be picked out of most hospitals current stable of a few hundred anesthesiologists.

And won't this same dynamic be at play for coders, junior financial analysts, legal assistants, customer support professionals, and on, and on, and on… 

Okay, okay, now hold on a second. I started writing this blog post because I was asking myself how to make my own business AI proof and in thinking about it, discovered maybe it already was. My first improv teacher at UCB was Zach Woods and I would never trade that experience in for being taught improv by a robot.

So maybe improv is just like the other careers I mentioned and that’s the point of the post, I’m not writing this to terrify people into taking improv classes.

Buuuuuuuuuuuttttttt….. If you do find yourself terrified, the good news is there are fledging improv theaters all across the United States that are ready to provide you with one of the most fun experiences you will ever have. Improv classes near me is what you search for. And you can feel no shame in pursuing this silly pastime, because there is good reason to suspect that it will help you AI proof your career.

Okay, you're thinking, but Terry you have terrified me. You may not have meant to, but you have. I have to get started doing some improv right now.

Well, first of all, I didn’t terrify you. It is all the machine learning experts who did that. Blame them.

Secondly, you might scratch that itch by attending some of RA’s daily free improv workshops online. Frankly not as good as attending a class in person, but still lots of fun, every workday, and only 30 minutes long.

Or if you can’t wait less than 24 hours, here are some solo improv options you can start AI proofing yourself with immediately:

SUPPORTING OTHER PEOPLE’S IDEAS

Turn on the propaganda news station you disagree with the most. Listen intently until a pundit says something you hate. Hit pause. Say “Yes” followed by whatever it was they just said, then say “AND” and add to the idea. 

Rinse and repeat.

Don’t just say Yes and add ideas ironically. Try to make their bad ideas good, try to treat the pundit as if they are a poet or a genius.

I realize that may feel icky, but if you get good at that it will be super simple to get on board the next time your direct supervisor changes a workflow or where the photocopier is located (etc), and suddenly you’ll be seen as (and actually also be) more of a team player.

LISTENING

Work on your listening skills by listening intently to the most boring videos on the internet. Time yourself. First do it for 2 minutes, then 3, then 5, then 15.

And hold yourself to a high standard. If you start to drift, restart the timer and start again. Once you’re done with a listening session ask yourself what you just listened to. If you don’t know, start again.

A quick Google search for “boring videos” should unveil a treasure trove of options, but I like the below amazingly boring video! I bet you will too!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jk71bPz5VLo

MODIFIED MIND MELD

Try to get into a speakers head. Find a speech online (like the below on of Tom Hanks' commencement speeach at Harvard up in Boston) and hit pause intermittently. Try to guess what the speaker will say next, then hit play and see if you are right.

It doesn’t matter whether you are right or not, you are working a muscle when you try to understand what someone is going for. Just give it a good shot. People will appreciate it when they can tell you are making an effort to understand them.