AI will unlock a new level of human potential

There’s a lot of alarmism these days in the artificial intelligence (AI) space, especially as ChatGPT, Google’s Bard, and Stability AI take the world by storm. Many suggest that these conversations, generative and otherwise AI models will fundamentally change the way we live and work.

That may be true, but AI won’t take our jobs and destroy the world, although that’s a concern shared by 37% Americans. If we can embrace AI, it will free humanity from repetitive mental labor, open new doors professionally, and unleash people’s creativity. This massive technological advance will play a huge role in human progress and the growth of our economies.

Change the way you think about AI

AI is to the human mind what the steam engine was to the human body. People feared that innovations like the steam engine would replace them. Instead, it dramatically increased productivitythe number of manufacturing jobs available, wages, and essentially created a larger middle class.

It is the combination of humans and machines that makes us stronger. Research shows that up to 90% of employees today are engaged in recurring and often boring tasks. AI can free us from mindless work and make us more efficient in our work.

We’ve never invented a successful technology that didn’t make people stronger. The invention of the car makes us move faster (and keeps us dry when it rains). The cell phone allows us to talk thousands of miles away at the speed of light. Today, 93% of Americans trust Google’s autocorrect. As a non-native speaker, this first AI tool helped my English tremendously, making me stronger.

Likewise, advancements in AI will unlock a whole new world for the human race. Google CEO Sundar Pichai said it best during the 2018 World Economic Forum: “AI is probably the most important thing that humanity has ever worked on. I think it is something deeper than electricity or fire. Today we can see that it was obviously right. It’s time to embrace AI and let it help us achieve what was once considered impossible.

AI and the future of work

Historically, there has always been an “intermediate person” in the workplace. Right now I’m thinking of the company that answered the phone and sent a taxi. Today, Uber and Lyft let you connect to drivers without that middle person. Actors and singers had to attend thousands of auditions to make a name for themselves in the industry. Now anyone can use YouTube or TikTok to become famous without going through the traditional verification process. The same can happen with NFTs – are we going to visit all these art galleries in the future?

All of these examples lead me to assert that today’s technology will only take the average American to new heights. It will be a superpower for us professionally.

Dell Technologies predicts that 85% of jobs in 2030 have yet to be invented. As noted Deloitte, it means businesses and our current workforce need to take a skills-based approach. This means that in order to remain agile, competitive and ready for the careers of the future, we must acquire skills to master technologies such as AI. Innovators recognize the benefits of these technologies in terms of efficiency, productivity and profitability.

We are already seeing the benefits. While GPT-4 and ChatGPT are still new, they have already proven beneficial for code developers and bring mainstream AI to non-technical people.

But the potential is so much greater. To start, imagine using a chatbot to answer all your work emails, or to read a long report and provide a summary with key points. Imagine a world where you don’t have to train people on certain tasks, but rather train them to use artificial intelligence tools to perform said tasks, like creating PowerPoint presentations, providing quarterly analysis, or writing a blog post or research thesis. results. ChatGPT allowed anyone to turn their everyday words into a professional document that speaks the “language” of a doctor, lawyer or marketer – you name it.

Meanwhile, Stability AI is disrupting movie production and crafts. By synthesizing backgrounds, faces, costumes and other assets, it eliminates the need for a crew to spend millions traveling to New York to film. Instead, they can synthesize New York via AI. Imagine a world where the production of a Game Of Thrones episode, one of my favorite shows, would cost no more than $20 million and instead could be done at the kitchen table.

AI will completely change our education system, and it will democratize jobs that have been difficult to achieve until now. The process of becoming a professional and what professionals do will be very different from what they are today. As with the dramatic decline of cursive writing, with AI there will come a day when our children no longer need to learn to spell, write an essay, or drive a car, for that matter. Mathematics, for example, will remain important, but the job skills of the future will not be about programming a computer; but how to train a computer to get a correct answer or result.

The possibilities of AI

As human beings, we are always hungry for progress. We are where we are today because we were open-minded and have an innate learn-first attitude that allowed us to learn and adapt to new situations and ways of being. . The AI ​​reaches a level of efficiency and competence that is totally unparalleled. We need to be open to the endless possibilities this may present in the years to come. Yes, it will change the way we live and work, but never fear, it will be in the most positive and profound way.

Sebastian Thrun is President and Co-Founder of audacity.