A cactus beginning to bloom. This is either a fish hook or hedgehog cactus.
Did you hear that Elon Musk, Andrew Yang and Steve Wozniak signed a letter asking artificial intelligence labs to put a pause on their development? Around 1,000 tech gurus signed the letter asking for a pause on development until shared safety protocol could be developed, implemented, and reviewed by independent experts.
What do they know that we don’t?
Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, who released ChatGPT-4, admitted he was a little scared of what they’ve created. But he didn’t sign the letter.
A headline popped up on my phone stating what jobs would be lost first to AI. Accounting, mathematics and writing. It’s predicted 20% of jobs will be wiped away. That’s 20% of our workforce with no insurance or income.
I’m reminded of a freelance writing job that kept me busy during the early days of the pandemic. I featured small businesses for a trade magazine and another magazine highlighted parks and rec. I’d receive an email from the editor with a list of contacts and questions to ask. Each story had to include several things, like the square footage of the business and revenue. The assignments began to feel robotic because it was so formulaic. What kept it interesting were the people I interviewed. They had unique stories of how they created their businesses and what they were doing to make things work during the pandemic.
If you take people out of the equation, what do we have left? What are your thoughts?
We’ve made ourselves redundant.
Yes. That’s one way to put it.
almost expendable
Yes!
It’s ridiculous
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For 6 days, God created a masterpiece, and then on the 6th day, he went and ruined it by including people.
That seems to be the truth.
These days, when someone tries to compliment you with “you are a one in a million!”, they do not realize that there are still 7,000 people out there just like you.
I read an article yesterday about the number of people just like us. It wasn’t 7,000 but it was something to think about that there are people exactly like us out in the world.
I was just doing the math…1 in a million, 7 billion people on earth…
Ha!
AI for the mindless stuff bullets such as the square footage, okay, no problems. But the stories that you dug up talking to the business owners, you’re only going to get from a human writer. Yes, I know AI can do amazing things. I’ve seen some samples and yes, I’m concerned, but I value the writer behind the story too much. Unfortunately, I don’t know how others are going to act. Let’s hope they really dig into the ramifications. Something tells me though they’re going to be moving full steam ahead. Ugh.
I think you’re correct. Some people may slow down and pause, but not everyone.
I’m working on a draft right now about AI risks. Losing jobs is just one problem. I saw quite a bit of pushback from big tech investors yesterday. I doubt they’ll pause . The letter was probably a preemptive “we tried to warn you.” thing.
I’ll look forward to reading your post on AI. Investing will also be a lost career!
Honestly EA, I’m not all that focused on the whole AI controversy right now- maybe because I know that I won’t be impacted when it comes to work like others might be. There have been too many other things in the news right now that are giving me my own pause and needs for reflection.
It does seem nonstop with the news.
I’m sure with a lot of input that AI can generate something interesting, but my experience is that the output is either stale or just downright wrong. It may turn out to be like Y2K. Remember that “disaster”?
I do remember Y2K. We had friends who poured a ton of money into a generator and survival gear for something that never happened.
AI tried to respond to my blog about the biggest compliment I received. They are trying to take over readers jobs, also. I guess if the younger generation is timid about working jobs, then AI will step in.
I love how you highlight how people make it interesting. Exactly right!
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The AI stuff scares me a bit. We have a few friend who work in big tech and they fully believe that all jobs other than surgeons (and anything else hands-on with high liability) will be replaced by AI with 20 years. And, secret government projects are 20-30 years ahead of public knowledge, so I believe the technology already exists that could make us all obsolete. It’s really hard for me to wrap my head around because I believe humans are unique from machines, but those working in the field see that gap closing rapidly.
Those are some alarming thoughts. I want to believe human beings are unique and needed.
It’s a bit disturbing
It is. And I doubt they take a pause.
I hope they aren’t busy creating another problem for us.
Sobering…and I fear what’s to come…I’m not averse to change…but even in my profession…the helping biz…there are tons of AI-informed tools that simulate human interaction and support and some are borderline reckless. Thanks for sharing the news about Musk, Yang and Wozniak…I’d not heard about that. Hmm…🤔
That’s creepy! “Simulate human interaction…”
I agree, pull out the people, and you lose what’s valuable. I also question if anyone is really taking a pause. Hugs, C
If anyone takes a pause there are others who are not.
My first thought is that writing requires people. Take them out of the equation you may have something, but it is writing? I dunno the answer but the AI examples of writing that I’ve read seem hollow. No heart, you know? Only people have heart– or at least the good ones do.
I agree with you. The AI writing is boring. You said it best. Without heart.