As the role of Artificial Intelligence is increasing in everything, I’ve been wondering: If we, as human beings, are a part of nature, how can anything we create be artificial?

We see a beaver’s dam or a spider’s web as natural. Yet we see a skyscraper or a silicon chip as artificial. But are they? Or are they all just different expressions of the same, singular life force, building structures from the raw materials of the earth?

This distinction is now at the very center of the anxiety leaders face. We are framing the rise of Artificial Intelligence as a contest between the natural human and the artificial machine. We are being told to prepare for a competitor.

But what if this entire premise is flawed, and the line we’ve drawn is imaginary?

The definition of the word artificial is that it is made by humans rather than naturally occurring. This definition is naive, as it simply assumes that what is made by humans is not naturally occurring.

Think about it: A beaver fells trees to build a dam. We call this natural. A human fells trees to build a cabin. We call this artificial.

In that sense, a city is no less or more natural than a coral reef or an ant hill; it’s just a different, and uniquely human, expression of an animal modifying its environment.

The word ‘artificial’ originally comes from the Latin artificium. This doesn’t mean unnatural or fake. It means craft, skill, or art. It comes from ars (art) and facere (to make). An “artifice” is simply a thing made by skill.

A spider’s web is a spider’s artifice. A beaver’s dam is a beaver’s artifice. A silicon chip is our artifice. All are expressions of life’s intelligence, using the available materials of the world to build something.

A skeptic would rightly argue that there is a material difference: The beaver’s dam is biodegradable and part of a living cycle; the silicon chip creates toxic, linear waste while placing a heavy energy burden on the planet. 

This critique is true, urgent, and a perfect symptom of the problem. This ecological crisis is a reflection of the kind of intelligence we have over-valued.

Before we can fix what we make, we must understand the part of ourselves that is making it.

When we see this, the panic begins to settle. If AI is not an alien invader, but is a product of our own nature (which it is), then it is not our competitor; it is our mirror.

And what does this mirror show us?

It reflects back one part of our own intelligence, magnified to an almost unimaginable degree: the calculating mind – the part that analyzes, predicts, finds patterns, and processes data.

It is perhaps the ultimate expression of the logical, analytical, so-called ‘left-brain’ function that has been so highly valued in leadership in the recent past. It can potentially process more data, faster, than perhaps any human mind ever could.

But this is where the mirror’s reflection stops. It might be a powerful expression of our intellect, but it is void of our essence.

AI has calculation, but no consciousness. It has data, but no discernment.

It can generate a response, but it cannot be present.

Just as a calculator can perform mathematics but cannot understand the nature of reality the way mathematicians do.

It can follow its programming, even re-write its programming, but it cannot act from a place of integrity or hold the profound, paradoxical tensions of leadership and of life. This is because being human does not simply involve calculating, it involves living.

This is why the rise of AI is perhaps not a threat, but one of the most significant leadership development possibilities of our lifetime.

What if nature will always evolve to its highest expression? By creating an ‘artifice’ that can so master the game of pure calculation, it is possible that nature is simply paving the path for us to have a deeper experience of our own essence.

For decades, we have promoted and rewarded leaders for their calculating abilities. Now that this game can be played so efficiently by the machine, we are invited to focus on the other dimensions of our existence.

What are these other dimensions? They are the vast, rich territories of our world – inner and outer – that we have been taught to bypass in favor of the calculating mind.

It is the epistemological dimension: the experiential reality of being in our bodies, fully present to our senses.

It is the relational dimension: the capacity for genuine love, compassion, and the creation of deep human connection.

And it is the ontological dimension: the silent, spacious awareness from which all creativity, wisdom, and true insight emerge. This is the very essence of our humanity.

But this evolution is not a guarantee. Whether AI contributes to this future depends entirely on the wisdom we bring to it now. If we are wise, we will use this powerful ‘artifice’ as a tool to free ourselves to live into this new possibility.

The future is in developing our capacity for presence, wisdom, love and compassion. It is in navigating the very world of human consciousness that only human beings can live in.

As a possibility, maybe AI is not here to replace us. Maybe it is here to show us, by its very nature, what our real work has been all along.