Edition #18 - THE FIGHT FOR HUMANITY IS ON
There is a moment in history where you can feel the rules changing under your feet.
By Mykel Salomon · 2026-02-27
<h3><strong>🔓 Opening Reflection</strong></h3><p>There is a moment in history where you can feel the rules changing under your feet.</p><p>Not slowly. Not politely. Fast. competitive. unapologetic.</p><p>AI labs are in a race. Big Tech is in a race. Startups are in a race. Nations are in a race. And when everyone is sprinting, one thing gets pushed aside first: caution.</p><p>This week, one story made that reality impossible to ignore.</p><p>A major AI lab, Anthropic, reportedly overhauled its Responsible Scaling Policy and removed a central pledge tied to only training or releasing systems when it could guarantee safety measures were adequate. <a target="_self" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="text-[#4FD1C5] underline hover:opacity-80 PgDsUNLbwedwjquDuJUxtZEbonyZGvKwLh " href="https://time.com/7380854/exclusive-anthropic-drops-flagship-safety-pledge/"><strong>TIME</strong></a></p><p>I am writing it because it reflects a broader truth:</p><p><strong>When the incentives are speed and market dominance, safety becomes negotiable.</strong></p><p>So here is the question that keeps rising in my chest:</p><p>If profit is the incentive, and government is moving too slowly, then who is protecting the human future?</p><p><strong>We are. Not someday. Now.</strong></p><hr><h3><strong>🔦 Signal of the Week</strong></h3><p>Here are a few facts worth sitting with:</p><p></p><ul><li><p>The World Economic Forum projects that if the global workforce were 100 people, <strong>59 will need reskilling or upskilling by 2030</strong>, and <strong>11 are unlikely to receive it</strong>, translating to over <strong>120 million workers</strong> at medium-term risk of redundancy. <a target="_self" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="text-[#4FD1C5] underline hover:opacity-80 PgDsUNLbwedwjquDuJUxtZEbonyZGvKwLh " href="https://www.weforum.org/press/2025/01/future-of-jobs-report-2025-78-million-new-job-opportunities-by-2030-but-urgent-upskilling-needed-to-prepare-workforces/"><strong>WEF</strong></a></p></li><li><p>The OECD highlights growing exposure of jobs to AI, noting that <strong>one in three job vacancies</strong> have high AI exposure in its discussion of the AI skills gap. <a target="_self" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="text-[#4FD1C5] underline hover:opacity-80 PgDsUNLbwedwjquDuJUxtZEbonyZGvKwLh " href="https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/publications/reports/2025/04/bridging-the-ai-skills-gap_b43c7c4a/66d0702e-en.pdf"><strong>OECD PDF</strong></a></p></li><li><p>When safety pledges weaken in the middle of a race, it signals what many of us already feel: the systems shaping our lives are moving faster than the guardrails meant to protect them. <a target="_self" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="text-[#4FD1C5] underline hover:opacity-80 PgDsUNLbwedwjquDuJUxtZEbonyZGvKwLh " href="https://time.com/7380854/exclusive-anthropic-drops-flagship-safety-pledge/"><strong>TIME</strong></a></p></li></ul><p></p><p>This is not abstract. It touches how people are hired, evaluated, and replaced. It touches how healthcare is delivered, how kids learn, how truth spreads, and how power concentrates.</p><hr><h3><strong>🌍 In the Wild</strong></h3><p>This is what the race looks like in real life:</p><p></p><ul><li><p><strong>Inside companies:</strong> AI pilots turn into production systems without clear ownership for harm, bias, and escalation.</p></li><li><p><strong>Inside support and CX:</strong> automation gets rewarded for deflection and speed, while trust gets damaged quietly, one wrong answer at a time.</p></li><li><p><strong>Inside hiring and performance:</strong> “efficiency” language grows while humans become line items.</p></li><li><p><strong>Inside families:</strong> people feel the ground shifting but do not have a weekly practice for learning, adapting, and protecting their agency.</p></li></ul><p></p><p>The most dangerous outcome is not that AI gets powerful. It is that humans get silent.</p><hr><h3><strong>💬 The Big Question</strong></h3><p><strong>If you could not rely on government, and you could not rely on tech companies, what would you do differently starting this week to protect your future?</strong></p><p>Not your five-year plan. Your next seven days.</p><hr><h3><strong>🧠 A Small Exercise</strong></h3><p>Take 10 minutes. Write this down. Keep it simple and real.</p><p></p><ol><li><p><strong>One area of my work already changing because of AI is:</strong></p></li><li><p><strong>One skill I will build in the next 30 days is:</strong></p></li><li><p><strong>One human edge I refuse to outsource is:</strong> (judgment, empathy, ethics, creativity, hard conversations)</p></li><li><p><strong>One boundary I will ask for at work is:</strong> (guardrails, escalation, accountability, what we refuse to automate)</p></li><li><p><strong>One person I will help reskill is:</strong> (a teammate, friend, sibling, partner)</p></li></ol><p></p><p>Then do one thing in the next 24 hours that proves you meant it.</p><hr><h3><strong>🎙️ This Week’s Episode</strong></h3><p><strong>Episode:</strong> How This 20-Year-Old Used AI to Scale Brands Past 7 Figures in E-Commerce <strong>Guest:</strong> Drew Carmichael</p><p>This conversation explores what AI changes in e-commerce when you stop chasing hacks and start building systems. Drew breaks down how discipline, automation, and human trust are what separate a flashy demo from real revenue.</p><p>We talk about:</p><p></p><ul><li><p>Why AI lowers the barrier to entry, but raises the bar for execution and trust</p></li><li><p>How Drew built from small, scrappy experiments to Shopify growth after Amazon rule changes forced reinvention</p></li><li><p>The “humans want humans” lesson in sales and client relationships, and why relaxed trust beats polished scripts</p></li><li><p>How they use AI to speed up SOPs, reporting, and website building, with strict review to prevent hallucinations</p></li><li><p>Why AI-generated content can hurt conversion when it feels generic, and where human voice still wins</p></li><li><p>Ethics and non negotiables, from AI girlfriends to medical advice, and why confidence without verification is dangerous</p></li><li><p>Execution culture: focus, momentum, hiring for attitude and potential, and why dedication beats credentials</p></li></ul><p></p><p>This episode is a reminder that tools evolve fast, but character still compounds.</p><p>🎧 Available on: <a target="_self" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="text-[#4FD1C5] underline hover:opacity-80 PgDsUNLbwedwjquDuJUxtZEbonyZGvKwLh " href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/7qdKXzJUHGIpeKEreiMnYG?si=Z-NlGTuATz-QLjwfB3eMTQ"><strong>Spotify</strong></a> <a target="_self" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="text-[#4FD1C5] underline hover:opacity-80 PgDsUNLbwedwjquDuJUxtZEbonyZGvKwLh " href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s2e8-redefining-success-how-young-entrepreneurs-are/id1843402023?i=1000751369836"><strong>Apple Podcasts</strong></a> <a target="_self" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="text-[#4FD1C5] underline hover:opacity-80 PgDsUNLbwedwjquDuJUxtZEbonyZGvKwLh " href="https://youtu.be/nf5r8UmnIlw?si=xffuuzKdNGXlhSrV"><strong>YouTube</strong></a></p><hr><h3><strong>🧭 Thought to End the Week</strong></h3><p><strong>The future will not be defined by what we predict.</strong> It will be defined by what we refuse to tolerate, and what we choose to build.</p><p>The fight for humanity is on. And it starts with us.</p><p>If this resonated, share it with someone you love. Not to scare them. To wake them up.</p>