From the wisdom of the ages:

“Second place is just the first-place loser.No one remembers who came in second. I didn’t lose, I got second.There is no such thing as second place, either you are first or you are nothing.Second place is a set of steak knives.History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.”

Paramount did not want Al Pacino for the role of Michael Corleone in “The Godfather.” They wanted Warren Beatty, Robert Redford, Jack Nicholson or Ryan ONeal. Pacino once remarked that the character of Michael was underestimated and that matched his feeling and informed his performance.

So, how does being a second choice affect your sense of belonging at work? Wharton professor Samir Nurmohamed did some research, and he found that when an employee learns they were the second choice “they feel less socially integrated in their work groups,” and this has important implications. “That discomfort makes those workers reluctant to ask for guidance and feedback,” he contends.

What this really means is that his/her manager needs to proactively reach out and encourage. If you are not expected to succeed, it can either motivate you to excellence (think Tom Brady, picked 199th in the NFL draft) or you can fade, fold and leave the company.

Nurmohamed’s study focuses on social integration, the sense of not belonging. When you are the default choice, when you are the result of “well, we don’t have anybody else, so let’s go with Jones,” that feeling of being an outsider cuts across race, age, ethnicity and gender. The research says you are not going to end up doing well.

It falls to a sensitive and informed leadership team to create the environment for success. We all know the cost of finding a new employee and onboarding him. If you lose that person because you failed to make her/him feel like a part of the team, well, that is just dumb.

I like the idea of finding someone with unrealized potential, rather than picking the proven résumé. My personal inclination, as both an angel investor and as a CEO, is to look for the hunger, the underdog who just wants a chance. While it is often the riskier bet, those odds fit my personality.

I believe that one of the primary motivations that drives entrepreneurs is the twin desires for revenge and redemption. It is the classic, “I am going to show those guys.” We all have demons, and I believe in the entrepreneurial exorcism, complete with the spinning head.

I was at recent pitch fest event where one of the companies was pitching the idea of making an AI chatbot with empathy “to counter the physical and emotional health of people who are isolated and without a sense of community.” I chuckled and thought this was ridiculous.

And yup, I was wrong again. It turns out that this is a growing industry. If a chatbot can tell you which aisle the dog food is on, then of course it can listen and respond to why you think your mother still hates you.

Wharton professor Stefano Puntoni writes, “when the bot was prompted to be helpful, empathic and upbeat, the participant reported feeling significantly less lonely.”

OK, but

The New York Times, Oct. 24 – The lead story is about a 14-year-old boy who fell in love with a bot (Character.AI) and then used his stepfather’s .45-caliber handgun to kill himself.

Stop the madness. Guardrails, shmardrails — this is both tragic and outrageous. And this story is not the first. The risks in AI are existential, especially when married to a deep societal disconnect with reality and facts.

Kellyanne Conway famously said when defending the size of Trump’s inauguration audience that she was using “alternative facts.”

This has echoes of the famous Silicon Valley mantra, fake it ‘til you make it. Look, I have a tiny AI company, I know the power of the platforms. Be careful what you wish for.

When the machines come for you, don’t think you can turn a blind eye and take no responsibility. There is no renegotiation with a bot. The algorithm becomes the fact, and its truth is not open to discussion.

Rule No. 831: The song “Daisy Bell” — the last words from HAL 9000

Senturia is a serial entrepreneur who invests in startups. Please email ideas to neil@unicornhunter.ai.