Preparing Yourself for the AI Revolution

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been a lot on my mind lately - if you’re reading this, perhaps you too.

It’s not often humans invent a technology that has the potential to completely reshape society. I’d

liken it to the invention of agriculture, which completely reshaped how humans organized their societies, from nomadic to permanent settlements. Imagine the possibility of machines that are smarter than us in many/most/all domains - what does that mean for our identities, our lives and society at large?

Okay on to you - what comes to mind when you hear AI? Is your association positive or negative...is AI a benevolent deity, terminator or something in between? Do you think the impact will be small or large…across society or just in our jobs? Will the change come fast or slow? How are you thinking about how to adjust to all of this?

I feel like we are in a similar “exponential" situation like COVID-19, where we were unprepared for how fast these changes could occur in society. Even think about social media and how quickly it took over the way we interact with each other and consume information.

Let me make my case that this AI revolution is indeed coming:

• For thinking tasks that AI can copy, they can do it better and faster, to the tune of hundreds of millions of times better

• Adoption of AI was the fastest ever for a new technology - 100 million within 2 months (by comparison, the same benchmark was met for iPhone after 2 years)!

• New AI models are learning how to use the tools (like a calculator) we use in our everyday lives, creating exponentially more ways AI can do tasks previously left to humans

• AI is displaying signs of “stacked” exponential growth, faster than Moore’s law due to AI’s ability to learn and improve on its own

Here’s a graph of AI’s learning curve so far:

While it is not clear whether, and when, artificial general intelligence (let’s just say…a machine that can truly operate as flexibly and intelligently as a human brain) will become a reality, we are approaching a moment where AI will be ubiquitous in all areas of our lives. Look at this robot and see for yourself. If you want to grasp the *possiblity* of just how crazy this new world could be, read Life 3.0 by Max Tegmark. It's wild but fascinating.

A Framework

Given where we are now, how should we be thinking about ourselves, our lives, and the people in it, in relation to AI? I’d suggest the following framework (modeled after our beloved SWOT analysis):

​Personal - Threat These are the risks to you and the people you care about that are specific to your situations. For example, your job might be at risk for automation.	​Personal - Opportunity These are the opportunities that are personal to you and the people you care about. Opportunities could be in how you use AI in your job, investment opportunities, or an opportunity to improve your life.
​Societal - Threat These are the risks that will affect most of society in similar ways. This could be increased surveillance, biased algorithms, cybersecurity threats, or deepfakes on social media.	​Societal - Opportunity Societal opportunities are the uses of AI that have community/city/country/global impact. For example, this could speed up the development of new drugs, solutions to the climate crisis, or new technologies that make our lives easier (AI assistants?).

There is plenty to think about at the societal level, as what affects all of society will certainly affect you. Unfortunately, a lot of these changes will be out of your control (don’t love this…) and it will be important to make sure you are prepared for those changes.

Monitor societal-level risk by staying up-to-date on AI. For example - have you seen the Republican Party’s first AI-generated video attacking Joe Biden for the 2024 Presidential primary? To their credit, they noted this in the ad. While nothing is based on fact, it’s very believable. This is a sign of what’s to come, and who says that bad actors won’t use generative AI and deepfakes irresponsibly? Keep your eye out.

Personal Opportunities and Risks

Let’s focus more on the areas in which you have more control and discuss some actions you can take now.

Personal Opportunities

Personal Risks

​How might you leverage AI in your work now? Can you use AI to automate certain tasks, and spend more time on higher value work? Can you use AI to be more creative and innovative? Can you be a leader and teach others? How might AI make your life better and easier? How might AI support you in your goals? How might AI help you in your relationships?

​Is your job, or organization, at risk for disruption due to AI? Are there threats to your personal health and safety? What are cybersecurity and privacy threats you should be aware of, from fraud and misinformation to hacking of private info Are there threats to my financial security? Is your investment strategy properly balanced for a potential AI disruption? Are there threats to my sense of self-worth, to my sense of purpose if AI can do what I do better? Are there threats to my sense of humanity and the quality of my relationships?

So this begs the question...what should I do? It's not an easy answer, but here's a start of some suggestions:

1. Learn AI concepts and technologies

No matter what, learn about AI - if you’re not interested, at least you know enough of what is going on that you can prepare yourself. Learn what AI can do, generally how it works, its strengths and limitations.

Here are some learning resources as of today - there are many more free online!

• Code.org

• Google’s AI for Everyone

• IBM’s AI Foundations for Everyone

• AI Today Podcast

• TED, Freakonomics, Harvard Business Review and Ezra Klein all have great episodes about AI

2. Monitor AI’s development

The technology is going to move fast, and to ride the wave rather than be swept up, I would follow influencers who are giving updates, teaching about new concepts, and giving suggestions for what to do with AI. While the news you consume will likely share very big updates in AI, influencers usually give a more nuanced view and more detailed information that you will not catch.

Some influencers I follow:

• Timnit Gebru (pictured to the right)

• Allie K. Miller

• Zain Khan

• Kate Crawford

• Joy Buolamwini

Be careful not to grab onto just 1 person (like Sam Altman, Andrew Ng or Elon Musk) - everyone is subject to bias and promoting an agenda and their self-interest, especially big corporations. This is mitigated by finding influencers from around the world, in different organizations, with different expertise and diverging opinions. This list includes key AI ethics experts like Timnit Gebru, who are specifically studying real-time threats to people right now, such as racism, exploitation and bias.

3. Play with AI

It is now a common saying that AI will not replace people, but it will replace people who don’t keep up using AI. Figure out different ways to use AI in your life, knowing that AI will seep into technology all around you!

AI services you can use: ChatGPT3 (GPT4 you need to pay for), Google's Bard, and Microsoft Bing AI, which are types of generative AI that use natural (conversational) language to process.

Some suggestions for generative AI:

• Let AI write your emails or other content

• Let AI create a plan for you, like a vacation or marketing plan

• Let AI brainstorm ideas or names for you (it helped me named my newsletter, the Potencia Post!)

• Have AI do something fun and wacky, like write a poem as if you were a cat in space or a whale in the year 2300

• If you want some cool new headshots, go over to my friend Zeeshaan's cool new headshots product

4. Discuss AI

You should keep AI in your regular discussions - whether on a granular level and how you are using it, or at a bigger societal or philosophical level. All these conversations will be relevant as the technology becomes ubiquitous in our lives. It’s the same thing as where social media is right now - we didn’t see the influence of Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok coming, and the consequences of the technology were only understood years later.

Talk to everyone - family, friends, coworkers, anyone. The more that you have a network of people up to date on the technology, the more likely you will be able to both mitigate any risks, as well as to take advantage of opportunities.

Conclusion…for now

I hope this post was helpful in getting you to think about what you should start to do as it relates to AI. Personally, I’ve been trying to get my bearings so that I can prepare for the future, and I thought I should share with you.

If you are curious to chat about this topic, feel free to sign up for my newsletter or book a consultation call to see if coaching might be right for you.

For Learning and With Love,

Chris