Generative Anxiety

Like all new tech pivots but only more so, we are all living through a rapid realisation phase that is making TikTok look sluggish by comparison.

Techies will roll their eyes and talk about “old AI” – machine learning and so on, and “new AI” – generative AI and LLMs and the transformation they bring.

When any new tech comes along, the world divides between optimists and pessimists – the worried and excited. Well, I am happy to join the excited bench.

Mainly because if this means anything it means there has to be a significant shift in workforce skills. To constantly adapt and take advantage of this extraordinary tech, the emphasis has to be on constant listening and learning.

Learning - serious learning - becomes something you do at work, not for three years before work. That is because whilst AI may know everything, it understands nothing.

Its power to benefit people and the planet (and our ability to stop it from becoming destructive) relies entirely on the education system not producing another generation of people waiting to be told what to do.

As you will always hear many people say, all tech is overestimated in the short term and underestimated in the long term.

We will benefit from the many advantages of AI when we get over the fact that it is smarter than us, and work out how it makes us smarter.

Cartoon: The Spectator