If you’re a professional, leader, or high-functioning thinker who feels uneasy about artificial intelligence—but can’t quite explain why—you’re not alone. Many people who are succeeding on paper are experiencing a quieter struggle: a sense that the skills and identities they’ve spent decades building are suddenly less certain.

What’s missing from most conversations about AI is a psychological lens—one that looks beyond productivity and asks a deeper question: What does this shift say about how the human mind works and how we understand ourselves?

To explore this question further, I spoke with Pete Sacco, author of The Bridge and a technology executive who designs the physical infrastructure behind large-scale AI systems—and who has also spent years studying and retraining his own nervous system through contemplative and somatic practices. His perspective bridges two rarely connected worlds and leads to a steadying insight: AI isn’t threatening our humanity; it’s helping clarify it.

Rather than a single ability, intelligence can be understood as working in two complementary ways. One involves optimization: speed, pattern recognition, prediction, and execution. This is where AI performs exceptionally well, especially with large-scale, clearly defined tasks that would take humans far longer to complete.

The other involves discernment: judgment, ethical reasoning, understanding context, and deciding what matters when there is no clear or perfect answer. This kind of intelligence draws on experience, emotion, and awareness,........

© Psychology Today