First, AI finished our lines of code. Then it opened our pull requests, wrote our LinkedIn posts and ran eight workstreams at once while we watched. Every step felt like a superpower. And every step quietly cost us something: the experience of having built it ourselves, the real conversations behind PR comments, the ability to follow what is happening. Tobi traces this escalation from a single desk to teams, networks, economies and up to planetary scale, and asks a question most AI stories skip: we’re teaching AI how to work. What is it teaching us about how to live?
Drawing on research on design for wellbeing and Self-Determination Theory, Tobi explores how AI can feed or quietly erode the needs our individual and societal wellbeing depends on. And while the EU has just pushed back key obligations of its AI Act, the decisions land on us: at our desks, in our teams and in our companies. A performance about deciding.
COO at Railslove.
Tobias Gerstenberg is COO at Railslove, a Cologne-based studio on a mission to build sustainable, meaningful digital products. 18 years and close to a thousand projects have taught the team one thing: great products foster the wellbeing of their users, take responsibility for their impact on society and drive business success, all at the same time.
A product engineer by trade and a web activist at heart, Tobi pushes businesses to reach their potential without sacrificing their values. The team at Railslove also coaches organizations on healthy ways of collaborating with technology and AI as part of the German INQA program.
