41st Reflection: Asimov Says Hello.
Orakwe John, MBA
AI Programs Lead | AI Educator (2250+ Upskilled, 30+ Executive Workshops) | UNDP AI4Dev Reference Group Member | Driving Global Digital Transformation
Dear Leader,
You are welcome to #AI Fluency Friday, my weekly response to the leadership challenge posited by Eric Schmidt, Daniel Huttenlocher, and the late Henry Kissinger in their 2023 opinion piece, "ChatGPT heralds an intellectual revolution."
Today's reflection remains in rhythm with our traditions of immersion, pragmatism, and active imagination, dating back to March 24, 2023, when the first edition of AI Fluency Friday was published.
Like previous reflections, which tap inspiration from people, events, and ideas, the 41st edition has been chiefly inspired by my last 2 AI upskilling sessions with 330+ business leaders and professionals at level 1 (awareness) and level 2 (active) of the AI maturity model [February 22, and February 29, 2024].
Additionally, today's reflection has been influenced by attitudes and practical insights from Isaac Asimov, Satya Nadella, Tan Wu Meng (Singapore), Accenture, IBM, Amazon, Ericsson, the UAE government, the government of Thailand, the government of Pennsylvania, the Yokosuka City government (Japan), the government of Oslo (Norway), and my contributions to 20+ AI programs in 2023.
These attitudes, insights, and experiences we'll be highlighting today, are effective beacons for navigating the fog and frightening speed of the ongoing industrial revolution: which produced Nvidia's $277 billion gain in market value on February 22, 2024, the largest single-day gain in market history.
Going into the business of the day, we refer back to January 2024.
During the conversation between Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Chairperson of the World Economic Forum Klaus Schwab.
Nadella revealed an open secret that he and many CEOs and professionals typically leverage to maximize the creation and capture of value in a time of transformative change, such as the unprecedented rise of AI co-pilots.
What's the open secret? — Continuous Learning!
Nadella spills the beans here. Play video before you proceed.
Video 1: Satya Nadella speaks about his secret to winning the AI race. Credit: WEF.
In the video you've just seen, Nadella shares his experience of relearning how to operate in the second year of a paradigm shift. After 32 years of working at Microsoft!
Nadella's approach is incompatible with the infamous and disempowering notion that education is something to be finished, a belief that Isaac Asimov, a prolific writer and professor of biochemistry, strongly disavows.
Asimov's quote emphasizes the importance of lifelong learning, a fact of life appreciated by Nadella and professionals who understand and apply Kasparov's Law of Applied AI to re-think workflows and raise productivity levels in as many business functions as possible.
In the original work from which the above quote is distilled, Asimov notes that "what is exciting about learning new things, is the actual process of broadening yourself and knowing there’s now a little extra facet of the universe you know about, can think about, and can understand" [1].
In the digital economy, which has grown by leaps and bounds since the 1960s. And especially now, in the age of AI co-pilots (2023 and beyond), every knowledge worker is left with no choice but to live this exciting (and sometimes painful) truth of Learning Continuously!
In Southeast Asia, specifically Singapore, we have seen arguments in favour of new government subsidies announced in the recent budgets to support citizens over the age of 40 in their pursuit of full-time diplomas in AI.
Singaporean politician Tan Wu Meng, who doubles as an oncologist, is spearheading this push to empower Singapore's workforce, especially mid-career and older workers.
His proposed education experience brings together students of different ages, with the older workers contributing life experience while learning new skills from the younger students. This creates an intergenerational learning environment that benefits both groups.
Essentially, his program advocates embracing technological change through continuous workforce upskilling and promoting lifelong learning across ages through supportive policies (subsidy) and an innovative education model (young and old learn AI together).
In his viral speech made on February 26, 2024, he notes that the skills and knowledge someone learns at age 20 are likely to become obsolete or transformed by the time they reach 40.
However, the reality is a lot harsher!
Advances in technology are rapidly changing the demand for skills. Increasingly, technology is handling repetitive and manual tasks and even sophisticated knowledge-based work—such as research, coding, and writing—long considered safe from disruption.
In 2024, the average half-life of skills is now less than 5 years—and 2.5 years in some tech fields. Many knowledge workers will discover that AI and other new technologies have altered what they do. They will effectively be working in completely new fields [3].
Earlier in the week [Wednesday, March 6], I communicated to Mr. Meng the prevailing truth of the less than 5-year half-life of skills—and less than the 2.5-year half-life of skills in some tech fields.
I hope this extra information helps in fine-tuning and improving their national AI upskilling programme.
Now, turning to the private sector, let us consider AI upskilling at IBM (information technology), Accenture (professional services), Amazon (e-commerce and more), and Ericsson (telecommunication).
At the World Economic Forum's #Davos2024 Panel [Generative AI: Steam Engine of the Fourth Industrial Revolution?] moderated by Zanny Minton Beddoes of The Economist, Julie Sweet [Chairman and CEO of Accenture] and Arvind Krishna [Chairman and CEO of IBM] were co-panellists with Senator Mike Rounds from South Dakota, Minister Sultan Al Jaber from the United Arab Emirates, and Cristiano Amon, President and CEO of Qualcomm.
On this panel, Julie noted that Accenture has 740,000 employees and that the most important interview question they ask each of their 100,000 new employees per year is this:
What have you learned in the last six months?
This question is often asked because they have built a learning culture and are looking for life-long learners who fit right in, as these are more likely to survive and thrive in the age of AI co-pilots.
Putting their money where their mouth is, Accenture invests $1 billion per year in training their workforce.
Long-term, Julie notes the most sustainable approach will be based on partnerships with governments to include AI literacy in basic education (the UAE is currently leading on this front) [6].
However, in the short term, Accenture's impending acquisition of Udacity appears to be a step to replicate the results of its in-house training program in the wider world.
On the same panel at Davos 2024, IBM's CEO, Arvind Krishna, spoke about the upskilling of 160,000 out of 250,000 IBM employees through a week-long exercise in August 2023, where they formed teams and used IBM's generative AI platform as a way to get hands-on training with the technology.
In light of the future hiring freeze announced in 2023, credit must be given to IBM for re-assuring and upskilling their current workforce to maximize returns from the fast-evolving era of intelligent digital assistants.
Krishna said the impending cuts will primarily impact non-customer-facing roles, such as human resources (i.e., back-office jobs)—a division that accounts for approximately 26,000 workers [7].
In the telecomms space, Ericsson has upskilled more than 15,000 telecom experts with AI and data science skills, in just 3 years [8].
As part of its ongoing digital transformation, Ericsson has developed a multi-year strategy devoted to upskilling and reskilling.
Ericsson's approach involves systematically defining critical skills connected to strategy, which correspond to a variety of accelerator programs, skill journeys, and skill-shifting targets—most of them dedicated to transforming telecommunications experts into AI and data-science experts [8].
The company considers this a high-priority, high-investment project and has made it part of the objectives and key results that executives review quarterly [8].
At a much larger organization, Amazon, with over 1.5 million workers, a "Machine Learning University" has been established to enable thousands of employees who initially had little experience in machine learning to become experts in the field [8].
Away from the private sector and into the public sector, here are some important upskilling examples:
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In Q2 2023, in Yokosuka (Japan), a favourable trial of ChatGPT in combination with LoGo chat, a local government chatbot service already being used by Yokosuka staff, culminated in shaving off 50 minutes from a regular 50-hour workweek.
During the trial, officials used the AI tool to make bulletins, summarize records of meetings, and edit documents for typographic errors [9].
Yokosuka became the nation’s first local government to test out generative AI for administrative operations when 4,000 employees at the city’s municipal government office used the chatbot as part of a one-month trial [10], which resulted in saving 10 minutes per day. More details about this project can be found here.
In the US, the government of Pennsylvania (US), are following in the footsteps of Yokosuka, and have become first state in the US to pilot ChatGPT Enterprise for its workforce.
The trial, which started in January 2024, saw government employees using ChatGPT for creating and editing copy [i], making outdated policy language more accessible [ii], drafting job descriptions to help with recruitment and hiring [iii], addressing duplication and conflicting guidance within hundreds of thousands of pages of employee policy [iv], helping employees generate code [v], and more [11].
The experience in Yokosuka and the impending success in Pennsylvania underscore the importance of trials and the effectiveness of a people-centric approach to AI adoption
People first - process second, and then technology.
The last example to close today's reflection is from Oslo, where the government is towing the path I suggested in the 34th reflection (Goodbye Prussia, Hello Alpha), where we explored "a less cool alternative to AGI', a path to raise a concentration of geniuses in all domains of professional endeavour in Generations Alpha and Beta (i.e., those born from 2010–2024 and those that will be born from 2025–2039) [12].
By purchasing ChatGPT for 110K students and teachers, Oslo city officials (like the UAE), is on it's way to transforming public education by imparting AI skills at basic education levels.
Julie Sweet's long-term plan is happening now.
In closing today's reflection, I recall my experience from this quarter (Q1, 2024), where I've interacted with 430+ business leaders and professionals.
The next couple of years (2023 onwards —) will be a historical period of great unlearning (i.e., education is a life-long adventure) and superlearning (i.e., how to augment the individual and human collective) to produce better and faster with AI co-pilots or cognitive assistants.
Every business and all governments must design and deploy effective programs that prepare their people for the opportunities and challenges of the new age.
Thailand is developing AI literacy programs for its 71.6 million population, and Singapore is doing the same for its 5.454 million population.
Both countries take an approach that reflects the uniqueness of their population, with the median age of their population at 41 years old (2022, Statista) and 42.8 years (2022, Statista), respectively.
Accenture is preparing ~754,000 people, Ericsson is preparing around ~100,000 people, Amazon is preparing around 1,541,000 employees, and IBM is preparing some 250,000 people.
They understand that Delay is Dangerous, and at this time, there are very few line items in personal, corporate, and government budget that beat investment in AI training for personnel.
Finally, in a lengthy conversation with a CEO friend in Germany about OpenAI's Sora, and the possible futures that can emerge from the ongoing industrial revolution, we both agreed that beyond space-to-ground data, which could trigger a new phase of the AI revolution on or before 2029 when 57,000 new satellites will launch into low earth orbit [13], AI training is the one thing that can make Hollywood professionals in the film value chain treat news topics like Tyler Perry's freezing of his $800 million studio expansion plans as an opportunity (to start producing with tools like OpenAI's Sora) and not a threat (job loss).
What is your plan for mastering AI and empowering your teams to master AI?
This has been the 41st reflection on AI Fluency Friday (#AIFF). I am Orakwe John, MBA, and I collaborate with global businesses and institutions to envision and build the future.
If you're ready to be part of the growing list of AI-powered businesses, business leaders, and professionals with whom I'm crafting AI success in 2024, reach out, drop a message, and let's forge a legacy together.
Please Note:
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Or why has Ericsson, in the last 3 years, transformed ~15,000 telecom experts into AI and data science experts? What do they see? Which framework are they using?
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Or more importantly, why could Amazon's $4 billion investment in Anthropic (September 2023) be worth as much as $8 billion in the next 11 months (January 2025)?
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References:
[2]—https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7487554-people-think-of-education-as-something-that-they-can-finish
Author of The Ultimates | HPE | Kniru | Ex-@888VC |
7 个月Leaders like Julie Sweet are always so inspiring Thank you for sharing this Orakwe John, MBA I'd love to share this article with more folks who are interested in AI on the AI Finance Discord community if that's alright with you
Consultant in Patent Intelligence and Engineering Management
8 个月Orakwe John, MBA Perhaps we also need to think about how to solve our problem without using AI. Our AI initiative is: "With our intellectual property (IP), we can do what ChatGPT, an icon of AI, can't do in data analytics." Do you or any of your contacts need our expertise and our IP? We're selling, NOT talking. Thanks. P.S. We wrote this statement ourselves, without using any AI tool.