When AI changes the rules 

Long before ChatGPT, philosopher Bernard Suits posed a question that has become increasingly relevant in the age of artificial intelligence: What makes a life meaningful when work and effort are no longer necessities? 

For Alex Asay, the rise of AI has not changed that question—it has made it impossible to ignore. 

A doctoral student in the University of Georgia's Franklin College of Arts and Sciences Department of Philosophy, Asay studies Suits' philosophy of games, sport, and human flourishing. The ideas seemed speculative when Suits developed them in the 1970s, but they have become, in Asay's view, essential for understanding what AI puts at stake. 

"The value of many activities lies in the striving itself," Asay said. "If AI can perform more tasks on humanity's behalf, people still need reasons to pursue excellence and growth." 

Why challenge creates meaning 

Suits argues that people voluntarily seek out unnecessary challenges because those challenges create meaning. His 1978 book, "The Grasshopper: Games, Life and Utopia," imagined a future of frictionless convenience and asked whether human flourishing could survive it. 

Asay first encountered Suits' work as an undergraduate at Idaho State University. He has spent years exploring its implications, culminating in the 2026 publication of "On Bernard Suits' Philosophy: How Play, Games, and Sport Shape a Life Worth Living," co-authored with Francisco Javier López Frías, assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Health Science at Utah State University. The book applies Suits' framework to contemporary conversations about technology, meaning, and the pursuit of a good life. 

For Asay, Suits' philosophy points to a simple conclusion. 

"The best life isn't all work or all play," he said. "It's a synthesis." 

Living the philosophy 

For Asay, those ideas don't end with scholarship. They shape the way he serves, lives, and teaches. 

Students in his ethics courses are encouraged to think beyond easy answers and examine the reasoning behind their own beliefs. 

"I want them to leave my classroom with the understanding that ethical thinking requires more than having a loud opinion or a persuasive presentation," he said. "I want them to be prepared to reason through moral disagreement rather than simply react to it." 

That perspective carries particular weight as students prepare for a workforce increasingly shaped by AI. Asay sees Suits' central insight—that striving has value independent of the outcome—as an important counterpoint to a culture increasingly focused on efficiency. 

His philosophy has also been shaped by experiences beyond the classroom. Asay serves in the Air National Guard and is a father, balancing those responsibilities while completing his doctorate and co-authoring a book. 

After returning from a six-month deployment overseas, Asay found himself applying Suits' framework in an unexpected place: home. The vigilance that served him abroad did not disappear immediately. Everyday family life required a different kind of attention and patience. Rather than viewing those moments as frustrations, he began treating them as worthwhile challenges—voluntary obstacles, in Suits' terms—that created rather than consumed meaning. 

Why striving still matters 

Artificial intelligence is reshaping work by reducing the amount of human effort many tasks require. Decades before AI entered the public imagination, Suits wondered whether too little challenge might become its own problem. 

Asay believes that concern deserves serious attention. If AI can write, compose, design, and solve problems, why should people continue doing those things? 

Because, Asay argues, the value was never solely in the outcome. It is also found in the effort, discipline, and growth that come from pursuing worthwhile goals. 

That principle is reflected throughout Asay's own life. While pursuing his doctorate, he has balanced military service, fatherhood, and scholarship, earning a university-wide teaching award, the Air and Space Commendation Medal, a scholarship from the UGA Foundation through the Student Veterans Resource Center, and the R. Scott Kretchmar Student Essay Award from the International Association for the Philosophy of Sport. 

"Alex is an absolute star," said Aaron Meskin, professor and head of the Department of Philosophy. "Not only has he been one of the department's best teachers, but he has co-authored a book with a well-respected publishing house. I cannot think of another graduate student in philosophy who has done this." 

Meskin noted that Asay achieved those accomplishments while not only serving in the Air National Guard and raising five children, but also while contributing to the department. 

For Asay, however, those achievements are not the measure of a meaningful life. They are the result of embracing worthwhile challenges. 

As technology continues to transform the way people work, Asay hopes the next generation will not lose sight of what gives life meaning. 

When he thinks about the future, he thinks about both his children and his students. 

"My hope is that they know what they believe and live with conviction but also put real effort into being good neighbors," he said. 

He does not believe AI will erase human individuality. But preserving it, he argues, will require intention. 

"The temptation already exists to let convenience determine what we value," Asay said. "My hope is that people continue choosing challenges that ask something of them. In Suits' terms, I hope we never stop choosing to play the game." 

For Asay, philosophy is not about arriving at certainty. It is about learning to live well with other people, even when disagreements remain. 

Artificial intelligence may change what people can accomplish and transform the way people work. But it cannot tell people what is worth caring about, what kind of neighbors they should be, or what makes a life meaningful. 

That conviction has guided Asay through military service, doctoral study, fatherhood, and the classroom. As AI reshapes what people can do, he believes the most important questions remain human ones: how to choose values, build character, and pursue a life with purpose. 

For those questions, Asay believes, philosophy still matters