Edition #18 - THE FIGHT FOR HUMANITY IS ON
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.
By Mykel Salomon ·
🔓 Opening Reflection
There is a moment in history where you can feel the rules changing under your feet.
Not slowly. Not politely. Fast. competitive. unapologetic.
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.
This week, one story made that reality impossible to ignore.
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. TIME
I am writing it because it reflects a broader truth:
When the incentives are speed and market dominance, safety becomes negotiable.
So here is the question that keeps rising in my chest:
If profit is the incentive, and government is moving too slowly, then who is protecting the human future?
We are. Not someday. Now.
🔦 Signal of the Week
Here are a few facts worth sitting with:
The World Economic Forum projects that if the global workforce were 100 people, 59 will need reskilling or upskilling by 2030, and 11 are unlikely to receive it, translating to over 120 million workers at medium-term risk of redundancy. WEF
The OECD highlights growing exposure of jobs to AI, noting that one in three job vacancies have high AI exposure in its discussion of the AI skills gap. OECD PDF
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. TIME
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.
🌍 In the Wild
This is what the race looks like in real life:
Inside companies: AI pilots turn into production systems without clear ownership for harm, bias, and escalation.
Inside support and CX: automation gets rewarded for deflection and speed, while trust gets damaged quietly, one wrong answer at a time.
Inside hiring and performance: “efficiency” language grows while humans become line items.
Inside families: people feel the ground shifting but do not have a weekly practice for learning, adapting, and protecting their agency.
The most dangerous outcome is not that AI gets powerful. It is that humans get silent.
💬 The Big Question
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?
Not your five-year plan. Your next seven days.
🧠 A Small Exercise
Take 10 minutes. Write this down. Keep it simple and real.
One area of my work already changing because of AI is:
One skill I will build in the next 30 days is:
One human edge I refuse to outsource is: (judgment, empathy, ethics, creativity, hard conversations)
One boundary I will ask for at work is: (guardrails, escalation, accountability, what we refuse to automate)
One person I will help reskill is: (a teammate, friend, sibling, partner)
Then do one thing in the next 24 hours that proves you meant it.
🎙️ This Week’s Episode
Episode: How This 20-Year-Old Used AI to Scale Brands Past 7 Figures in E-Commerce Guest: Drew Carmichael
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.
We talk about:
Why AI lowers the barrier to entry, but raises the bar for execution and trust
How Drew built from small, scrappy experiments to Shopify growth after Amazon rule changes forced reinvention
The “humans want humans” lesson in sales and client relationships, and why relaxed trust beats polished scripts
How they use AI to speed up SOPs, reporting, and website building, with strict review to prevent hallucinations
Why AI-generated content can hurt conversion when it feels generic, and where human voice still wins
Ethics and non negotiables, from AI girlfriends to medical advice, and why confidence without verification is dangerous
Execution culture: focus, momentum, hiring for attitude and potential, and why dedication beats credentials
This episode is a reminder that tools evolve fast, but character still compounds.
🎧 Available on: Spotify Apple Podcasts YouTube
🧭 Thought to End the Week
The future will not be defined by what we predict. It will be defined by what we refuse to tolerate, and what we choose to build.
The fight for humanity is on. And it starts with us.
If this resonated, share it with someone you love. Not to scare them. To wake them up.