GPT-5: A Gift and a Gut Punch
As someone who has worked with, coached, and led managers for years, here’s my honest take: GPT‑5 is both a gift and a gut punch.
The Gift
The gift side is easy to see. Tasks that used to chip away hours of my week—meeting summaries, drafting proposals, designing training outlines, or even helping brainstorm ideas—can now be offloaded.
Suddenly, the time drain of repetitive cognitive tasks is handled by what feels like a ridiculously overqualified assistant. One that never sleeps, never complains, and never asks for a raise.
From original article: https://diamantinoalmeida.substack.com/p/will-an-llmchatgpt-ever-become-agi
For managers and leaders, that in itself can be transformative: more time to focus on strategy, more time to connect with people, more time to think instead of just executing.
The Gut Punch
But the gut punch comes quickly after. Being a manager is no longer about how much you know. That edge—the idea that your knowledge, expertise, and ability to produce fast answers sets you apart—is fading. And it’s fading fast.
What matters now is something deeper: your ability to ask the right questions, to frame meaningful problems, to create safety in uncertain environments, and to hold the space where people feel seen, trusted, and willing to grow.
None of that can be outsourced to GPT‑5.
After all, the model doesn’t resolve conflict. It doesn’t build trust across a team. It doesn’t navigate hidden power dynamics or recognize the quiet fears that keep people from speaking up.
- If a leader hides behind tasks or authority, GPT‑5 will expose that.
- If a leader leans into curiosity, clarity, and genuine care, GPT‑5 becomes an amplifier.
AI can handle more of the work—but you still have to lead the people.
What This Means for Big Tech
Watching the race toward artificial general intelligence (AGI) feels like watching a gold rush unfold on top of a minefield.
The “AGI race” fuels investor excitement, captures headlines, and pulls in some of the world’s brightest talent. But let’s be honest: even a jaw-dropping model like GPT‑5 still falls short of the real pillars of true general intelligence:
- Autonomy
- Self-directed learning
- Grounded understanding of the physical world
And yet, the push doesn’t slow down. Large language models are being woven into apps, workflows, and industries by people who often don’t fully understand how the technology works.
The black-box nature sells well when you’re pitching magic—but in domains like healthcare, finance, or justice, black boxes breed danger.
What Gets Lost in the Hype
- Security & Reliability: New risks like cyber vulnerabilities and odd failures can be catastrophic if oversight lags.
- Bias & Ethics: Flawed training data doesn’t disappear at scale—it multiplies.
- Transparency: If builders can’t explain outputs, how can regulators or the public trust it?
- Regulation Pressure: Laws like the EU AI Act are forcing accountability, slowing reckless releases.
- Social Impact: Every “efficiency gain” comes with consequences—job losses, industry shifts, community disruption.
- Erosion of Trust: Once the public feels oversold, trust is nearly impossible to reclaim.
The Road Ahead
Eventually, the honeymoon will end. And when it does, the true winners of this race won’t be the companies with the biggest models or the flashiest demos.
They’ll be the ones who merge:
- Raw technological power
- Ethics and transparency
- Sustainability and security
- Real-world usefulness
Not AI that just looks powerful in a press release—
but AI that earns its place in everyday life.
Tino Almeida is a tech leader, coach, and writer reshaping how we think about leadership in a burnout-driven world. With over 20 years at the intersection of engineering, DevOps, and team culture, he helps humans lead consciously from the inside out. When he’s not challenging outdated norms, he’s plotting how to make work more human, one verb at a time.
Top comments (0)