What Artificial Intelligence Can’t Do...that Highly Sensitive People Can

The genie is out of the bottle, and we can’t put it back in.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is here and there’s nothing we can do to stop it or the phenomenal momentum it’s developing at.

Astoundingly, I read in a newsletter by Vishen Lakhiani the founder of MindValley, the personal development and educational platform, that the growth in AI intelligence between now and the end of the year could be comparable to the evolutionary leap from a buzzard to a human being. Wrap your mind around that!

So what does this mind-boggling growth mean for humans, and especially Highly Sensitive humans who may be wondering where this leaves us?

As more of our world is run by AI, it’s easy for HSPs who tend to think and process deeply, seeing things that others miss, to feel overriding despair. I know I certainly do at times. I fear for the loss of human-ness in our society. I fear for the loss of true, heart-felt connection between people. I fear that our human potential - that we haven’t even scratched the surface of - will be forgotten in much the same way that muscles waste away when not exercised.

We are gaining so much from AI, yet we are also losing so much.

And these losses are exacerbated when we forget to use AI as the incredible tool that it is, instead allowing it to govern what we do.

This is the perfect time for Highly Sensitive People to lean into their sensitive trait.

To embrace their natural depth of processing and ability to sense subtleties, that, unlike AI, will be tempered by their empathy and ability to feel deeply.

To tune into and acknowledge the validity of their impeccable intuition. Their deep inner wisdom that has formed through a lifetime of experiences and an ability to tap into that elusive ‘something bigger’, the life-force energy that surrounds us.

These are the things that AI cannot do. And they’re things that the HSP does extremely well because of their physiological wiring: a brain that takes in more information and processes it more deeply, a highly responsive nervous system that is sensitive to the surrounding energies.

With the advent of AI, it’s now more essential than ever for HSPs to understand their physiology and learn how to leverage their incredible strengths. Because the HSPs’ strengths are uniquely human and irreplaceable by artificial intelligence.

The HSPs’ evolutionary role to keep themselves and the rest of their species safe is more pertinent now than ever.

Here’s a reminder of the key characteristics all HSPs share:

D – Depth of Processing, thinking and processing deeply, all the time

O – becoming more easily Overstimulated or Overwhelmed at times

E – feeling Empathy and being Emotionally Responsive, feeling things deeply

S – Sensing Subtleties and relating things to the Bigger Picture

If you have all of the DOES characteristics to some extent, you’re an HSP, and around 20-30% of us possess this naturally occurring temperament trait.

The world needs the HSP’s visionary strengths and empathy. It’s crying out for your ability to make decisions and choices that come from a place of deep caring for humanity. It desperately needs to be reminded to maintain a sense of connectedness to all that is. To make decisions that work for our children and the generations to come, helping to preserve the beauty and fragility of our Natural World.

The world needs your sensitivity, because it’s what keep us humans, human.