My friend Salil Kallianpur, in his Substack post "The Last Human Edge in an AI World," argued that character is the last remaining differentiator as intelligence becomes commoditized by AI. He pointed to Elon Musk hiring for "goodness of heart," to India's pharma boom facing US tariffs, and to the urgent need for students to build character over rote learning.
In healthcare and pharmaceuticals, character is not a differentiator. It is a prerequisite. You cannot trade it off against competence. You cannot "grow into it" later. And when it is absent—even with the highest intelligence, even with AI mastery—the result is not mediocrity. It is patient harm.
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