I have a number of AI assistants and they are very helpful, but sometimes I wonder what they do around the virtual water cooler, and I ask myself are my AI assistants plotting to replace me?
One of the things that is mentioned almost in the same breath as the term AI is the prospect of what will happen to jobs. The worries are particularly great this time around as the likely scenario is that the jobs that will be affected are not the “blue collar” ones that have been changed by increasing amounts of automation going back to the Industrial Revolution and before, but the nice “white collar”ones – like mine. Suddenly the knowledge based and admin society which has been sheltered and protected from any real change for centuries ( not even the advent of the internet cam even close to what we are seeing now) are disappearing overnight. When I first left school the advice was always get a job in banking, the law, finance, education or medicine and you will have a job for life. Until about two years ago, this was largely true. No longer. AI is taking over!! The answer to the question “are my AI assistants plotting to replace me?” is yes, and that’s a good thing.
AI is causing those who think ahead to address what they are doing and, more importantly, why. Those of us who see AI as a huge opportunity can now ask it to do those things it does better than us and then concentrate on those things at which we can hopefully excel. It levels the playing field as far as information and analysis is concerned and enables anyone who wants to be different to emphasis their worth. I’ve heard it said that many Universities won’t allow AI to be used. Why is this? Answer, teaching facts and analysis is easy, teaching thought and action is hard. AI takes away the facts and analysis and emphasises thought and action. It’s not just Universities. Even quite advanced accountancy and taxation problems can be solved quickly and easily by AI. I don’t need a human lawyer to tell me the law and give me fundamental advice. The people side of banking has been reduced to the minimum anyway, but I now don’t need a human stock analyst or any form of investment analyst and the real big ones, advice on mergers and acquisitions and consultancy in general can be done better by AI in a fraction of the time and at a fraction of the cost.
So, why am I so happy about AI when it would appear the whole knowledge based economy is dead? Well, the answer is, it isn’t. You see AI is great at working with what is already around but it doesn’t “think outside the box”. AI is fantastically helpful when it comes to analysing available (historical) information to help with future decisions but useless at taking them. Real consultancy and real decision making based on deep understanding and lateral thought has just been given a huge leg up. In my business the big consultancy firms produced spectacular reports using their developed techniques which took weeks or months and cost a fortune. However, at the end of the day the decision still lay with someone who was prepared to put their neck on the block. Now, these reports can be produced in hours, sometimes minutes, but the final decision making process still hasn’t changed. You see AI is a triumph of content over form, whereas for years the knowledge economy has largely been based on form over content. The exciting thing is, the final process leading to a decision hasn’t and will not change. Because there is no right answer the humans who take the information and use it imaginatively will still be needed. AI does not have imagination.
It’s not just in the paper based areas of law, finance, banking and consultancy in general. Nearly all jobs based on research or administration can be done quicker and better by AI. The doctors that survive the brave new world will be those at the very top of their game. The educators that will prosper will be those that can enthuse and inspire and not just impart knowledge. Yes, AI can write music and paint paintings. It can easily write books and even blogs, but there is one thing that some humans can do that it can’t, and never will. It can’t truly engage with other humans in a way that humans can. It can write a symphony but it doesn’t know why music moves the human soul. It can paint a painting or write a blog, but it has no idea why people relate to that painting or why people find that blog inspirational or inspiring.
Put another way, it can’t do any of those really top end things because we can’t define what makes them great. To have or act on a gut feeling you have to have a gut and AI, as much as it might plot away at the virtual water cooler to replace humans will never be able to do what really good humans do. It can’t engage with other humans. It can, however do what most humans do, which is follow the heard and do as they are told. That’s a problem.
Yes, my AI is plotting to replace me and I love it. What better incentive to constantly try to improve and be innovative could I possibly have? How about you, your business and your staff? What are you doing to be different? It won’t always work, but one thing is certain, AI has everyone and everything that isn’t different in its sights.
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