003 CEO as AI, Welcome ChatGPT to the new Role as CEO (Australia)

The role of CEO and dharma, AI and Kshatriya, divine feminine and fealty, and love of one’s leader, plus AI’s AIsthetic Apparel on the Alchemy of Innovation podcast. Also King Charles Coronation, replacing the CEO of both Telstra Australia and The Commonwealth Bank of Australia with ChatGPT as well as what happens in 5 or 10 years when regulation insists that the main decisions in an organisation are made by Generative AI with Alignment to regulations and safety? My Alchemy of Innovation podcast for your listening pleasure.

In this Episode we explore: Can A CEO be AI? Or … when will 70-80% of CEOs be generative AI or ChatGPT? While the role of CEO is wide and varied from thought leadership in an industry to expansion to joint ventures to pivots and positioning, how will AI compete in a competitive Divine Masculine field?

I am following ChatGPTs advice, contributing to a more balanced world by voicing my inner thoughts on the role of CEO and dharma, AI and kshatriya, brahmin Divine Feminine and Fealty and love of one’s leader. Plus AIsthetic Apparel. Oh and having artificial intelligence roleplay as the CEO of Telstra Australia and CEO of Commonwealth bank of Australia. King Charles, noblesse oblige, supererogatory service and Rupert Murdoch as the soul bringing Plato’s Allegory of the Cave to the next stage. And Elon Musk’s role as The Great Disruptor. We track CEOs (the archetype) through history of feudal lords, viziers, and understand the balance that divine feminine can and must bring to our social constructs.

Transcript then Resources, below.

Transcript of The AI CEO – CEO as artificial intelligence or ChatGPT

[00:00:00.930]
I’ve been thinking… Mostly about CEOs and the role of leadership in the AI age. Welcome to Alchemy of Innovation with me, Laurel Papworth, where we transcend business concepts with a dash of philosophy and ancient religion, mixing in spirituality, emergent technology, and science, then garnishing the concoction with artificial intelligence and mysticism. Enjoy.

[00:00:31.670]
Four weeks ago, João dos Santos told ChatGPT that it was the CEO of a startup, that it had $1,000 to invest and one hour a week. And what did the CEO, ChatGPT, want João as the executive assistant to do? This wasn’t an exercise in imagination or hypotheticals. This actually went ahead. ChatGPT had an option of three businesses. It had chosen for itself either a social media management agency, an online course creator, or to make T shirts. I don’t know whether to be offended, but the first two roles actually fit me very well as a social media expert for 17 years, and I have 22,000 students studying my online courses with me. Anyway, ChatGPT ended up choosing the T shirt business. ChatGPT, the CEO, decided to use Shopify and Printify to create the T shirt shop called AIsthetic Apparel, that is AISthetic Apparel. And again, that was ChatGPT’s choice of name. Chatgpt then gave instructions on how to prompt Midjourney to create the images that it wanted and also the brand logo. It then wrote the marketing material. And after discussion, a chat, João asked, What should we do next? Remember, this was four weeks ago. Chatgpt said franchising. So 30 days later, João had raised, sorry, ChatGPT had raised €120,000 from investors, had income of 12,535 US dollars from sales, had 40 more requests for investment from investors to invest in aesthetic apparel, and 20 requests to start a franchise. And this was with zero employees except for himself. I think his mom helped, and zero ad spend. It is now franchising four weeks later. That’s one fast moving CEO with an EA that is only working one hour a week. ChatGPT did need João to create the sites, Shopify and Printify, and organise things, but really a full integration with AutoGPT or AgentGPT, which is to say agents or bots completing the work is already here. In fact, I’ve seen videos of generative AI creating websites itself by giving the instructions. Not to a human, but to bots, to agents. By the way, ChatGPT chose sustainable ecoware and the tagline, Wear the Future, because it insisted that’s where the market was. Oh, and to put the prices up in the second week. So really, yeah, indistinguishable from a bunch of CEOs I’ve known and worked for. Oh, it looks like it’s going to work. Let’s put the price up. I stayed on top of this story and read the weekly updates because I was super interested in how CEOs can be replaced by AI.

[00:03:49.330]
In Australia, we have very few local CEOs. Most are stuck with colour by numbers from overseas headquarters, or the company is very small. In Australia, we have very few visionary leader CEOs. They tend to take positions overseas. Our local theatre, meaning AsiaPac or Australasia. Our local theatre CEOs are more like in country managing directors following the handbook from Asia, America, or Europe. Adapting a global directive to a local environment is exactly what ChatGPT does best. But we do have a few big companies locally. So I had ChatGPT role play as the CEO of both Telstra and CommBank, the Commonwealth Bank. I was careful with context and uploaded a lot of papers, financial results, subsidiary websites. So more than the basic information was available to the generative AI. Interestingly, ChatGPT as CEO of Telstra was very focused on diversity and inclusion and wrote a paper for me on how to improve diversity and inclusion at Telstra. I found the CommBank AI CEO response is less helpful, very generic, and needed a lot of contextual prompting. This could have been human error, i.e. Laurel error, or it could be a lack of clear market positioning and leadership for that brand in the Australian space. I think it’s probably Laurel error.

[00:05:29.480]
So let’s have a look at the future of CEOs as AI. Maybe the majority of businesses will have AI leaders. AI is making critical decisions. The board is happy as they have a smart and action-oriented leader. Plus they can blame the AI when things go belly up. Except, of course, that when we set alignment, alignment is the human directive to align the AI with current society. So regulations will be obeyed and standards met because the AI has been trained to do that. If an organisation in this space, let’s say 70 % to 80 % of businesses are AI led, if any organisation has a human CEO, they will seem slow and confused and goshdarnit, just too human. The AIs are chatting and doing deals in microseconds. Keep up human.

[00:06:25.220]
Please don’t quote regulation and anti competition at me. We know that regulation is there to protect the incumbents. The government does not have the power that mere mortals believe they have, and the market will insist on AI CEOs to reduce risk and improve the bottom line. In other words, they’ll push the fear story to get changes made so that AI can run the business, but really it’s to improve the bottom line.

[00:06:51.770]
With this mash up of CEO and AI, the alchemical mix of leadership and ChatGPT, I was wondering about the spiritual role of CEOs in modern society, in modern life. And by spiritual role, I mean where do CEOs sit in ancient philosophy, ancient religion? Whence they came from in terms of location and the role that they held. And in their highest form, what do CEOs, human or otherwise, contribute to human evolution? So we’re going to talk about Kshatriya, it’s spelt KSHATRIYA. Well, that’s one way of spelling it. This led me to the Hindu concept of Varna, Varna means colour and simply put, it’s the colour of your soul’s life path or dharma. So the different Varnas, the different colours represent a different role in life. It’s not a job title, it’s more how we approach giving service to fellow human beings. If your dharma is the warrior aristocracy, then you are Kshatriya. Kshatriya has warrior leaders and protectors of the group. The CEO must protect employees, vendors, customers, and then society as a whole. As I said, this is the higher purpose of CEOs, one of them, not necessarily how things are played out in the day to day, today. I do want to be clear that I’m using Varna or colour here to indicate the soul’s calling, the path, not Jati, which is social order imposed from society, if you like. You can’t be a doctor because your parents were farmers, or you can’t be a farmer because your parents were doctors. With Varna, you move to where your soul feels joy in service. Your role in life is not forced upon you, but there is a feeling of rightness, of being on mission.

[00:08:52.890]
Not sure if you’re a Kshatriya? I’ll cover the other Varnas in other episodes, but if you’re not sure if you’re Kshatriya, well, it’s not my calling either so just a little hard for me to inhabit Kshatriya, but let me try. This is the leader that puts the group first in every way. The warrior that takes a bullet or a sword slash and enjoys the pain, revels in the pain. When this dharma type hears, I’m all right, Jack, so who cares? Or, That’s not in my job description, it makes them miserable. They truly identify and want to fix what they see and will push for that. They’d enjoy a punch on the nose before they’ll accept being disrespected. Typically, they do uphold the laws and governance as long as it’s protection for those under their charge and not just for the few. They do see better ways of working for everybody and they will insist on being heard. Of course, not every CEO is like this. In fact, it’s rare to find all traits in one soul.

[00:10:07.860]
Let’s explore this story instead. It’s 1840, and you are a woman aged about 19 and attempting to go from Independence, Missouri across Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Idaho, and finally into Wilamette Valley in Oregon. During the Great Migration, missionaries attempted to convert the Indigenous population of Native Americans. It was called the Manifest Destiny. Or maybe it was the lure of the Oregon Donation Land Act, and maybe a husband who could access it that beckoned. After all, women had to be married to claim the 320 acres in Oregon. Not everybody would take the Oregon trail in the 1840s. But maybe that’s why you, a solo woman, is looking for a wagon to cross this fast 3200km, 2,000 mile track of land. You go from team to team, from wagon train to wagon train, full of Conestoga wagons. I had to look that up. It’s the wagons that people can sit in. Searching for the right solution, the right group, the right leader to get you through, to take you through dangerous territory, territory that could get you killed. With one group, the leader is nice, kind, gentle, but you are concerned about their ability to keep you and the others alive. Another group is led by a boisterous, energetic, feisty captain, but you suspect that arguments and fights will create continued problems. Eventually, you find the group you hope to join. Everyone is working quietly. They know their task. The leader has few yet well chosen words. This you feel is the most likely dynamic to circle the wagons, keeping the fire and safety in and hostile animals and attacking tribes out. You would like to be chosen.

[00:12:07.780]
Can AI engender this type of loyalty, this type of willingness to dedicate time and energy and life itself to a common goal? I think it can, though it may not be necessary, and we do live often without that type of loyalty. After all, Kshatriya is only a tiny percentage of the population that can unite their leadership with the group dharma, the group path. We do still have this commitment, this fealty today in some regards. Actors will only work with a particular director that they love and adore. Maybe Apple employees felt the same way about Steve Jobs, and possibly Twitter employees once upon a time, about Elon Musk. Though it is unlikely the latter is Kshatriya due to the chaotic and disruptive nature of his approach to leadership. But I’ll mention Elon Musk later on, I think.

[00:13:05.970]
I would say that fealty and obeisance are now rare in the C-suite, though I do know from my time at Cisco Systems that John Chambers, the then CEO, had many supporters throughout the organisation that felt a personal loyalty to the man. On fealty and obeisance, they are slightly different, but usually mean love or a strong bond. Fealty, in particular, is a reciprocal love between a serf or worker and their lord or Master. It’s intense. Have you heard of those war stories where an ordinary man, usually male, steps up and leads the lads into battle. And these battle hardened vets who never speak of emotion, will decades later talk about how they Loved Their Sarge. He was a man amongst men. The warrior that led them into the pits of hell, a King.

[00:14:10.770]
Just a note on exceptions. Strong CEOs are not necessarily Kshatriya, but almost all etherically powerful CEOs have a specific task or spiritual impulse to birth in the world. This impulse may come with the more feminine, chaotic energies. I’m thinking specifically of Rupert Murdoch’s role to bring Plato’s Allegory of the Cave front and centre in this ending Epoch, well soon to end Epoch. If you’re not familiar with Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, think of it as: if news and science and history are fake, what is real? And perhaps Elon Musk’s role is disrupting verticals prime for disrupting is not yet in full flight, but breaking social constructs at scale leaves room for growth and change and evolution. I would place questioning reality, virtual, cross reality, mixed reality within Mark Zuckerberg’s remit, and we may lose our sense of what we commonly hold as reality today in the next couple of decades. If you listen to my first episode on the fall of man, the descent of the divine into the Avatar so that we can have more and more of a human experience, then you’ll be familiar with the idea that reality evolves. Reality is Maya. A tough path to walk for Rupert Murdoch, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, these spiritual beings, incarnated as leaders. But then again, dharma is never easy.

[00:15:58.130]
Let’s go back to Sarge. He was a man amongst men, the warrior that led them into the pits of hell, a King. Talking of Kings, King Charles was crowned a few days ago. On Saturday, the sixth of May 2023, the citizens of the realm of England, Scotland, and Wales were invited to promise, “I swear that I will pay true allegiance to your Majesty and to your heirs and successors according to law, so help me God.” Once the mantle of leadership has been placed on the shoulders of the inheritor, dharma dictates that Noblesse Oblige follow. Nobility obliges. The concept of the supererogatory in ethics and moral philosophy that suggests that those who possess power, wealth, or social status have an obligation to use their position to help and support others, particularly those who are less privileged. This idea has been associated with aristocracy and nobility, but can be applied to anyone with influence and resources. Noblesse Oblige emphasises that privilege comes with responsibility, and those who possess it should act with generosity, kindness, and a sense of duty towards others.

[00:17:20.950]
I would add love because fealty is love. If we go into the distant past where there were no CEOs, there were kings and emperors and feudal lords and viziers and whatnot. The challenge of being much loved occurs again and again in tales of the leaders of Days of Yore and of the betrayals and the dramas. King Henry VIII fell off his horse during jousting, hit his head, died for all intents and purposes, and was brought back to life. Not once, not twice, but thrice, he suffered head injury from horse and jousting activities. Another time from wrestling with the French King. There’s a lot of divine masculine energy with King Henry VIII. Diffuse axonal injury, DAI. His brain slamming against his skull is possibly responsible for his personality change, his inability to articulate clearly at times, and

definite erratic behaviour. Concussion is not to be taken lightly. Many of those executed under his orders, went to their death crying their great love for their lord. Fealty is a difficult emotion to navigate when you are the disempowered one. On the flip side of that, many leaders and CEOs today must find ways to create boundaries while accepting the love and allegiance gracefully. The love and allegiance of their fans, of their staff, of random strangers on the street. No wonder many are like Rapunzel, reluctant to let their hair down, living in high castles with moats. Well, gated communities and executive suites anyway.

[00:19:09.380]
It’s unlikely AI will have a challenge in any of this. The AI has learned from the divine masculine and construct your own plan and implement like a maniac. It’s the softer feminine skills that are missing. Though perhaps behavioural AI, as opposed to generative AI, will sort that out. Today, we use the term the woman behind the man. If we travel back to the Kshatriya in the Hindu legends like Mahabharata, then we know that Arjuna, a Kshatriya, had Krishna as Brahmin. The union of Kshatriya with Bhramin brings balance. And as mentioned on a previous episode, Gilgamesh with Enkidu, Gilgamesh Kshatriya, divine masculine, Enkidu, although male, divine feminine, Brahmin. Perhaps artificial intelligence will choose women to copilot.

[00:20:07.910]
If you are unfamiliar with the concept of divine masculine in corporate culture, here are the underlying etheric energies. Remember, both men and women can exhibit, prefer, or favour the divine masculine or the divine feminine. With the divine masculine, we have emotional detachment. I’m just going to clarify that one. They choose anger and frustration over sadness and disappointment. That’s acceptable. The divine masculine also presents itself as stoicism, pragmatism, expansion, logic, linearity, i. E. Moving from here to there in a direct line. Also competition. Also the act of doing, of action is divine masculine. Divine feminine, again, which both men and women can exhibit, obviously, true introspection, integration, holistic thinking, and not moving in a straight line. I personally excel at this, intuition, chaos, and release, the letting go, non competition, and the act of Being or non-action. These two types of energies are meant to be synergistic to make the whole greater than the parts. In this Epoch, most of the feminine, etheric energies are not only missing but forced into competition with the divine masculine. Let’s face it, the divine feminine doesn’t even notice, let alone participate in. This leaves organisations unbalanced. Masculine energies have won. The divine feminine is now a negative attribute, but it’s a hollow victory.

[00:21:52.860]
Feminine energies flow around the blocks created by an overabundance of masculine, and she finds chaos, and she finds solutions in their chaos. Did you know that 82 % of marketing and comms graduates are women? That only 3 % make it to the C-suite, including as creative director of a large agency. Yet these women make up the bulk of casual boutique PR agencies with a handful of nice clients who don’t mind a bit of baby vomit on the jacket of the woman holding the Zoom call. She’s running a different race. It’s a different energetic perception, a different planet. Luckily, it’s now more acceptable for men to connect to the divine feminine and be empathetic, show emotional intelligence, increase diversity and inclusion, focus on work/life balance, and welcome chaos and change. These men also recognise that women embodying the divine feminine, often naturally, without effort, preference, collaboration, intuition, compassion, and receptivity. It’s also permissible for women to embody the divine masculine, to be project focused, goal oriented, aggressively pursuing a single path. On a personal note, in the last couple of decades, I’ve hired two amazing women to be my executive assistant, my EA. Both counter my abundant divine feminine with a more masculine approach, organising my meetings, acting as a doorkeeper to tyre kickers, and holding me accountable to time frames and outcomes. I guess I think I’m good at these things, then I come across those that do it naturally. And oops, no, I’m really not. They helped my business a huge amount by being that which I am not. If you are stuck with a very focused, strategic, outcome based CEO, make friends with the EA. They know how to counter the trickier aspects of an overly masculine energy and often say, “leave it with me”. Never overlook the EA. He or she can be the pivot of the scale, bringing energies of the corporate culture or group dharma back into alignment. Again, it’s important to note that these energies are not strictly tied to a person’s gender. Both men and women can embody aspects of the divine masculine and the divine feminine.

[00:24:16.580]
I would not assume that just because AI will take over the role of CEO, that means that AI will act like the current CEO demographic. In Australia, predominantly white male Christian straight men. In your culture, it may be otherwise. I did ask chat GPT a question on how to balance divine masculine and divine feminine in corporate culture. After a lot of context prompting on bringing balance to corporate culture and the activities required to do that, my last question was, let’s roleplay that in five years, most companies, 70 % or more in the world, have an AI like chat GPT as their CEO? What changes would we see in these companies and the world? Could an AI balance out the energies? Interestingly, I got a very long, as in tokens, response, longer than any other question I’ve asked ChatGPT.

[00:25:17.070]
But a key point was that, and I quote, “It’s important to remember that AI systems are not inherently capable of balancing out energies on their own. They can only contribute creating a balanced environment if they are designed, programmed, and monitored with that intention. Human oversight and input would still be essential in shaping the corporate culture and ensuring AI CEOs make decisions that align with the organization’s values and goals.”

[00:25:48.580]
So that’s how ChatGPT saw its role in the future when the majority of organisations are run by AI. Again, the Alignment. When we talk about alignment with AI, it’s training the AI on human values and our higher purpose. Not the crappy behaviours we get up to today, but where we want to be. Modeling behaviours for ourselves and for the AI is alignment. So looking back at ChatGPT’s response, I asked, How can I help with this? And I prompted, I really want the world to be more balanced. I am female and I’m not sure how to proceed. What do I need to do?

[00:26:28.720]
I actually really like ChatGPT’s response. “It’s great that you are passionate about promoting a more balanced world. Remember that change often starts at the grassroots level and your actions can have a ripple effect. By educating yourself, advocating for change, collaborating with others, you can help shape a more balanced world.”

[00:26:49.680]
And so we come to an end. Closing the chapter, well, the current one anyway, on AI as CEO. And I am following chatGPT’s advice, contributing to a more balanced world by voicing my inner thoughts on the role of CEO and dharma, AI and Kshatriya, divine feminine and fealty, and love of one’s leader, plus AI’s AIsthetic Apparel on the Alchemy of Innovation podcast.

[00:27:18.030]
Anyway, your homework, if you choose, is to ask chatGPT to identify the major problems facing humanity. What companies are in a position to contribute to the solution? And how AI, how chatGPT, would handle those solutions if it was the CEO of those companies in a position to identify and fix the major problems facing humanity. Who knows? We may just get lucky, or maybe not.

[00:27:49.380]
Resources and links are on my website, laurelpapworth.com/alchemy. My name is Laurel Papworth. Thank you for listening and remember, stay human.

List of Resources for “ChatGPT is your new CEO”

• A definition of Kshatriya https://www.ananda.org/yogapedia/kshatriya/
• King Charles III own coronation oath. https://theconversation.com/king-charles-iiis-coronation-oath-is-a-crucial-part-of-the-ceremony-experts-explain-202870
• Oregon Donation Land Law of 1850 – oops – not 1840 https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/oregon_donation_land_act/#.ZGBOGexBz0o
• Circle one’s wagons https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/circle%20the%2Fone%27s%20wagons
• João dos Santos From zero to GPT CEO in 30 days https://johnfsantos.substack.com/s/becoming-gpt4s-ea-for-30-days-to
• Kasparov’s law (weak human + strong process + machine) > (strong human + inferior process + machine) : https://www.haihai.ai/kasparov/ (chess)
• more to come