This long-form article by AI entrepreneur Matt Shumer is hitting the socials like a thunderbolt. Like many people my age, I have dabbled with AI tools for a few years, both for work and pleasure, and spoken with my kids about their own usage. But, like a rushing tide, these tools are getting way better way faster, and with that progress comes an increasing inability to deny the ways that progress will revolutionize how we function as humans in a modern society.
A typical sentiment I've encountered, and at times harbored, is dismissal. They're inaccurate, they're no substitute for human intuition, they're just an avenue for easy (and ineffective) cheating. Whether or not this is true now, it is for sure far less true than it was even 6 months ago. Which means that 6 months and then 6 years from now, they will be darn right unassailable, rendering entire swaths of actions done without them as quaint as doing long division without a calculator.
As for me, I am increasingly using AI as an always available and non-judgmental companion at work, peppering it with queries to help me understand an issue and get essential background information. I haven't even progressed to the stage of using it to do my work, but at some point it will be both inevitable and expected, seeing as that it will be better, faster, and more accurate than me raw-dogging a task without its help.
Similarly, AI has enhanced my productivity and pleasure in my personal life. For example, I am constantly using it while I read a book, to help me keep track of characters, ask about a plot twist I didn't quite understand, and take me down a rabbit hole when something comes up I just want to learn more about. I query it for travel tips, help with house and car trouble, and synthesize complex current events. They say no one is smarter than everyone, and AI is getting close to being "everyone," so when used wisely why not tap into the wisdom of the masses?
As a parent, I do need to broach some tricky nuances with my kids on this topic. What will it look like for them to be employable when it's time for them to come off my payroll and convince some employer to put them on theirs? What are our ethics when it comes to cheating, prejudice, and bullying, given that it's now so much easier to give in to all of those things? And, as was once the case with World Book encyclopedia volumes and then the Internet itself, how do we cultivate the wisdom necessary to distill infinite information into actual insight?
Much more to probe here, but suffice to say the AI revolution is here, and it's only going to get faster. Buckle up!
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