Upon being invited to speak on a tech panel here in Squamish, I've decided to prep my thoughts in an article. As co-founder of an AI start up, I've chosen to focus on AI and have stolen a quote from Roy Vella for the title of my talk and this post. AI - Augmented Imagination
Having worked in AI for 3 years now, I've seen the industry evolve in unexpected ways. With my last start up building a Natural Language Processing tool, we were blown away by ChatGPT. It suddenly made our lives very difficult.
Now, I'm able to look at this platform shift for what it truly is. An opportunity.
When people think of AI as Artificial intelligence, they are often turned off by the thought of it being artificial, and unimpressed when it gets things wrong since it's supposed to be intelligent.
Augmented Imagination however better describes the capabilities of the LLM's widely available today. Ask it a simple question, get a simple response. Ask it a specific intentional question, get a higher quality response.
While this may sound concerning for those not up to date with best practices for prompting, it's likely not going to stay that way.
As LLM's get more advanced and we approach AGI or Powerful AI as Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei describes it, we'll be able to get more out of these systems with less effort.
The long tail effect of this is what really concerns me.
Look at the industrial revolution for example. Prior to this, most people with physically fit as a result of their job. Now, fitness is a choice for the majority of people despite being important for your physical and mental health (I do acknowledge that there are other factors at play here like diet).
Similarly, AI is will likely remove the need to be a strong writer. People will obviously still study writing and improve their skills in this space, but it will no longer be a required skill to be a functioning member of society. I won't speculate on the implications of this however in fear of getting too dystopian.
So How Is AI Affecting Society Today?
If you think back to how mobile phones fundamentally altered the way in which we interact with technology, I believe AI is going to fundamentally change the way we interact with work.
Large companies are downsizing. Small companies are staying small.
Overall, it's shifting the structure of organizations and what's expected of employees. High performing individuals likely have nothing to worry about. Everyone else however will likely need to learn how to catch up by utilizing AI or learning a new skill.
Regardless, I'm optimistic about what this means outside of work.
We're on the verge of several scientific breakthroughs with AI, Quantum computing, Nuclear Fusion, and several other fields which will create new industries and allow us to prioritize new problems like fixing the environment.
This consilience of the sciences is a topic I'll talk about another time however.
Hope you enjoyed!
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