Over the past year, Artificial Intelligence has shifted from being a buzzword to something that is actively changing how work gets done. This is true especially in technology, but increasingly it is affecting businesses in every sector of the economy. The speed at which AI is getting better at solving problems and improving workflow is astonishing. In software development, AI tools are now doing in minutes what used to take programmers weeks. These systems can generate, review, and refine large amounts of code. Their ability to communicate what they are doing and why has them acting like an additional team member. The result isn’t just marginal efficiency, it’s a step-change in output. Companies are launching products faster, testing ideas more quickly, and operating with smaller teams. In some cases, firms have reduced the size of their technical staff while increasing overall production. What’s important here is that this isn’t just about programmers. The same types of AI systems are being applied to legal research, financial modeling, marketing copy, customer service, and medical analysis. In other words, AI is beginning to perform tasks that used to require advanced degrees and years of training. AI systems aren’t progressing in a straight line, they’re compounding. Each new version tends to improve rapidly because it learns from larger data sets and more usage. Leaders in the field describe this moment as standing in front of a powerful wave that’s already forming offshore. It hasn’t fully hit yet, but it’s coming, and fast. From an economic standpoint, this raises two big questions. First, how many jobs will be displaced or reshaped? And second, how quickly can workers and companies adapt? History tells us that new technologies eventually create new industries and opportunities. The Industrial Revolution eliminated certain types of work but created entirely new sectors. The internet did the same. The difference today is the speed. If AI can absorb certain types of cognitive work… | Read More »
AI
Things AI can not do
The use of artificial intelligence has exploded exponentially in recent years, and AI related companies including Microsoft (part owner of Open AI, the developer of ChatGPT) and NVIDIA have driven the stock market to record highs. AI can achieve some miraculous things. It allows users to unlock their phone with their face, correct spelling mistakes they didn’t even realize they made, receive specific directions to new locations, keep homes and cottages at just the right temperature and detect fraud in financial accounts, among a million other things. And that’s just the simple stuff. AI will continue to transform our lives in ways we can’t even imagine. But, it can’t do everything. You can use an App to determine the amount of money in your account, the various rates it might accumulate based on the ways you invest it, and the optimum number of years you should spend working to build that account before you begin the withdraw from it. Those are just numbers, though, and retirement planning involves so much more. AI can’t solve the very human situations we all encounter as we cycle through life. For instance, AI would not talk you through your options when a diagnosis scuttles all those careful retirement plans you made as a young, healthy couple. You’d need a human financial advisor who will listen to your fears and guide you through the sometimes painful adjustment of your goals. An advisor can help you figure out a way to buy that RV you have your eye on so you and your spouse, who has just been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease, can make the most of the time you have left together. You need an empathetic human to walk you through ways to protect heirs who have developed addictions that would make a windfall inheritance dangerous to them. And only a human advisor can help you evaluate your long-term care options from a personal, emotional… | Read More »