Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation). In the last week of December 2025, I shared some excerpts from a message that I came across by Dr. Robert Svoboda. He is the first Westerner ever to graduate from a college of Ayurveda and be licensed to practice Ayurveda in India. The key message was – To remain awake without becoming overwhelmed, engaged without becoming entangled, serious without becoming grim. To keep our feet on the ground while the ground itself feels less stable. To remember that attention is a finite resource, and where we place it shapes not only how we see the world, but who we become inside it. Now, SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation) to the ones paying heed, is where we try to draw your attention to things that matter and the importance of your attention, because, ‘Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to’. Attention: is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once our attention is drawn to the mechanism of why and what we give attention to, it is as if a veil has been stripped off and we become freer in our action and choices. And that is our endavour. As we embark onto a new calendar year, there is one thing that has been concerning and exciting to people who look at it accordingly and that is AI (Artificial Intelligence – Large Language Models – Neural Networks) and its effect on our lives. In this episode titled ‘AI US and The Road Ahead’ I would like to draw your attention to a reflective field note by Ella Jane Mortensen who, holds a BA in international studies, specialising in global health, the environment and Europe, with a minor in philosophy, titled ‘What AI Can’t and Shouldn’t Replace’ here she points to something important – like many things, the issue surrounding our use of AI comes down to one of degree. We should think carefully about what we delegate to the machines, and what we keep for the realms of human endeavor. AI US and The Road Ahead Most recently, Kristalina Georgieva; head of IMF told delegates in Davos (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jan/23/ai-tsunami-labour-market-youth-employment-says-head-of-imf-davos) that the IMF’s own research suggested there would be a big transformation of demand for skills, as the technology becomes increasingly widespread. “We expect over the next years, in advanced economies, 60% of jobs to be affected by AI, either enhanced or eliminated or transformed – 40% globally,” she said. “This is like a tsunami hitting the labour market.” Now to what Ella Jane Mortensen draws our attention to – What we’ll give up for AI if we’re not careful is an essential degree of challenge and struggle in our pursuits which has a refining influence on our beings and defines us as humans. Therefore, we need to keep these systems as useful tools—and not more. Maintaining trust in human judgement is key to preventing them becoming insufficient replacements for our natural intelligence, as imperfect as it can be. In their book The Axemaker’s Gift, Robert Ornstein and James Burke remind us that the adoption of new tools and technologies has always come at a cost, “changing the way humans view their relationships to each other and to nature.” Whether it was the axe, the wheel, the printing press, or the car, these tools help us operate in the world with greater efficiency, while eliminating more basic skills, relationships, or engagements with the world that we used before that new technology came along. Excerpt from ‘AI Can’t and Shouldn’t Replace’ byElla Jane Mortensen. I am sure that you will enjoy reading this post and find it thought provoking too; to read you can click on the following link: https://humanjourney.us/field-note/what-ai-cant-and-shouldnt-replace Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s. Namaste.
