The power game that worries me most is AI. Now, I'm not talking about artificial intelligence, although I did see the latest Terminator film, and I could see that that could become rather tricky. I'm talking about something deeply rooted in human nature, that right now affects us all. Artificial integrity（正直）. When someone projects that they are intrinsically（内在地） motivated to serve you or others, when in truth, their actions serve themselves. It's a seduction strategy that delivers power to someone, whether they have the wisdom or the compassion（同情） to use that power well.

  I know that I'm not the only one who sees this. In responsible journalism, in activism, in advocacy, brave, brilliant people call out abuses（滥用） of power. But something's missing, because the impact of artificial integrity is rising, employed as it is by politicians, business leaders, and people heading towards domestic violence. In the week that I sat down to start collecting my thoughts for this talk, the young woman was brutally murdered by someone who used to be her intimate（亲密的） partner. I discovered that, on average, that happens every week in this country. We know we have a problem, but we haven't cracked it yet.

  Something's missing. That's why I wanted to describe artificial integrity in a way that exposes it for what it is, and offers some suggestions for how to disarm it. I'm a dramatist（剧作家）. I trained at Australia's National Institute of Dramatic Art. I worked as an actor, a writer, and a director, and now in business with leadership communication. And the combination of those lived experiences, the deep exploration of character and motivation, and the deep engagement（婚约） with the characters who run corporations, I think it's given（做） me an acute（敏锐的） sensitivity（ 敏感） for the way that people use psychological action in order to win and wield power.

  Communication is action. It's what we do to other people in order to get them to do what we want. I think Newton's first law, it's what we do to other people. And if we agree that we should be accountable（应负责的） for what we do to other people, then we need to recognise that there is a problem and that there are a lot of actions that go undetected. I mean, physical actions, they are visible. So punch（冲出）, handshake, a poke（刺）, a warm embrace.

  This has received a sensation（感觉） in the nervous system, and if that activity reaches the brain and influences perspective's opinions and behaviour, then it is a psychological action. Many psychological actions, in fact most, require no physical contact. Sight and sound, without touching any of you. I can welcome you. I can thank you. I can warn you.

  Or I can compel（强迫） you. And even though they are harder to detect and name than physical actions, psychological actions can have equal, if not greater, impact. When I first started helping people in business with leadership communication, I noticed what was almost a universal blind spot. And that is what it means to suit words to actions and actions to words. People with excellent intentions struggled when the moment arose to act. They were unnerved by boardroom presentations and selection interviews and performance conversations, you know, cross-examination in front of the media or a Senate inquiry.

  Now, that's challenging stuff. Right from the start, I could see that there were limitations from simply advising people to stand tall and speak from here and tell a story that related to moral values. I mean, that is excellent advice. For someone with a moral compass who knows why they are standing tall and who can give voice to impulses coming from their heart or from their gut（内脏）. But it's not good for any of us. When this advice, this power is shared with psychopaths, narcissists and predators（掠夺者） who can practice standing tall around speaking in a deep, reassuring（使…安心） prosody.

  It's like giving the nuclear codes to a lunatic. Tyrants and kleptocrats rise because they can and bullies exert（尽(力)） coercion and control when it is their path of least resistance（阻力）. And as I recently discovered on a trip to my local supermarket, artificial integrity doesn't start and stop with middle-aged white guys like me. I was on a mission to get some sun-dried tomatoes except the checkout queue had ground to a halt（停止） as a rigid three-year-old screamed, "I've got it!" The parent, AJ, not now, "What did I feed it?" "AJ, this is not a nice way to behave."