{"id":7460,"date":"2025-09-24T17:33:51","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T17:33:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=7460"},"modified":"2025-09-24T17:35:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T17:35:07","slug":"why-its-okay-to-use-ai-and-also-fear-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/why-its-okay-to-use-ai-and-also-fear-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Why It\u2019s Okay to Use AI and Also Fear It"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Nick Keppler<\/a><\/p>\n

Even in a deeply partisan political era, few pieces of legislation were more divisive than the One Big Beautiful Bill<\/a> Act (as it is officially titled). At the start of July, the law\u2014which slashes public benefits, provides tax breaks mostly for wealthy Americans, and includes a smorgasbord of President Donald Trump\u2019s other policy agenda items\u2014eked through the House and Senate, strictly along party lines.<\/p>\n

However, there was one facet that united almost every senator. The Senate voted 99-1<\/a> to strip away a provision in the House version that would have banned states from regulating artificial intelligence for ten years. Even House members who voted for the bill later said they were aghast<\/a> at the provision.<\/p>\n

AI has been igniting fears about social-media deepfakes, enhanced surveillance, cyberattacks, and mass unemployment<\/a>. Has fear of the technology become one of the few things that unites people of different creeds and political beliefs?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think with any wave of innovation, there was fear,\u201d said Academy of Management Scholar Marc Gruber<\/a> of the \u00c9cole Polytechnique F\u00e9d\u00e9rale de Lausanne, who added that steam engines, the internet, and even smaller inventions stoke anxiety about societal shifts and the displacement of labor.<\/p>\n

Gruber said that managers and other professionals whose work is rooted in brain power should see generative AI as an ally\u2014for the time being.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor now, it\u2019s extremely powerful as a tool that can help individuals to become more productive,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

AI can help white-collar workers complete some tedious tasks and free up time and mental capacity for more interesting ones. For instance, it can speed up innovation in many important fields such as medicine.<\/p>\n

As it gains footing in workspaces and companies develop a standard list of functions to delegate to AI, people can switch their skills acquisition and development to the responsibilities not on that list, said Gruber.<\/p>\n

For those worried for their job, Gruber warned, \u201cMy perception is, at the moment, that AI will not replace you, but someone who&#39;s using AI will replace you.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Gruber warns that beyond its important benefits, there could be a \u201cdark side\u201d of AI as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it starts to reason, gets a conscience, how does it perceive humanity, as a friend or foe?\u201d Gruber asked.<\/p>\n

A paper he co-authored<\/a> went so far as to allude to the killer robots of cinema history, the Terminator and HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey.<\/p>\n

And Gruber does not only fret about artificially intelligent evil. He said that he worries about people using AI in cybersecurity attacks and scams or to create bioweapons and other possibilities of \u201chuman beings using the power of AI to harm other human beings.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Nick Keppler Even in a deeply partisan political era, few pieces of legislation were more divisive than the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (as it is officially titled). At the start of July, the law\u2014which slashes public benefits, provides tax breaks mostly for wealthy Americans, and includes a smorgasbord of President Donald Trump\u2019s other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":7461,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[343,20,72,21],"tags":[],"sp_smart_badges":[],"ppma_author":[840],"class_list":["post-7460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ai","category-careers","category-ethics","category-innovation"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhy It\u2019s Okay to Use AI and Also Fear It - Academy of Management Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/why-its-okay-to-use-ai-and-also-fear-it\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nick Keppler\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/why-its-okay-to-use-ai-and-also-fear-it\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/why-its-okay-to-use-ai-and-also-fear-it\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Nick Keppler\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1b8aff6a6e3f22d0d813c97e6aab7149\"},\"headline\":\"Why It\u2019s Okay to Use AI and Also Fear It\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-24T17:33:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-24T17:35:07+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/why-its-okay-to-use-ai-and-also-fear-it\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":463,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/why-its-okay-to-use-ai-and-also-fear-it\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/08\\\/a8fe0cee-0986-4a98-b6a5-2c1672a945a1.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"AI\",\"CAREERS\",\"ETHICS\",\"INNOVATION\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/why-its-okay-to-use-ai-and-also-fear-it\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/why-its-okay-to-use-ai-and-also-fear-it\\\/\",\"name\":\"Why It\u2019s Okay to Use AI and Also Fear It - 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