AI, GenAI and the Future of Work - Summary and Conclusion

In summary and conclusion, I believe that the data provided and reviewed in this article confirms that while some job displacement will occur in the future due to the growth of technology (including AI and GenAI), there could be an equal to or greater than growth in some key sectors to negate the decrease. A great deal of whether or not this ever happens will be determined if we as individual firms and employers on a macro basis step up and provide the reskilling training and mentoring needed (and being begged for) by our current employees. If or when we do not, the data revealed in the Future of Work 2023 Survey results could be just a pipe dream rather than reality.

I also believe that we need to work quickly and on a collaborative basis to better educate our employees, partners, clients, Board members and other key stakeholders on the “basics” of AI, GenAI and other tools and not assume that they either understand or are comfortable with their root knowledge of these tools. This will go a long way in reducing what I sense is an unfounded and unspoken fear of these technologies by way too many and help all get a much clearer idea of the opportunities and risks that they bring to the table. If we allow fear to cloud our thinking when it comes to AI and GenAI, I believe we cede to them unwarranted power and control.

For me, I believe we need to look at these fascinating and yet potentially dangerous (if not effectively managed, regulated and monitored) tools as a wakeup call and start to better understand, nurture and harness the creative power each of us possess as a unique human being.

What will technologies like AI and GenAI never, ever have that we do? A mind and a body like ours, will they? Will they ever be able to be as creative as we can be, if and when we want to? No. Our biggest advantage over any of these tools is the simple fact that our brains are attached to a human body, isn’t it?

So even if (and this is a big if) a more advanced version of GenAI one day became capable of something that appears to be “creative”, would it really actually be that? Could it ever compete with genuine human creativity in the future? Only if and when we allow it to by not investing in individually and collectively becoming more creative ourselves.

Consider this; could AI or GenAI have ever written music anything as magical as Beethoven did, even when he was deaf? Or Mozart? Or dreamed up as Steve Jobs and other did a “gadget” that now controls a lot of our lives in the form of an iPhone? Or dream up as Walt Disney did an entire new industry when he at the age of twenty-five launched the Disney empire? Or a Tesla car? Could it ever have painted as Van Gogh or Monet did?

Or perhaps something more mundane like Velcro? Or the telephone? I believe the answer to all of these is a strong no.

At best, I believe that AI and GenAI can and probably will be able to exhibit simulated creativity but never be able to be human and as a result produce something that emerges due to the creative use of our human brain. Why do I believe this? Because as of today, AI and GenAI is as I recently read “ChatGPT are no more than a vast recycling machines. They can search our collective digital brains for pre-cooked ideas and pre-assembled facts and then churn them out as columns. It can imitate whatever style you tell it to imitate. But it cannot provide the human element — vivid observations or fresh ideas or leaps of imagination. The best way for a columnist to survive in the world of artificial intelligence is to write more human columns. This general rule, avoid destruction by upping human element in what you do, applies to most other knowledge-intensive jobs.”?—?Adrian Wooldridge, Bloomberg. Spot on!

So, another way to think about GenAI in its’ current form is that it is a robot that has at its’ disposal a very sophisticated and complex pattern matching process and system. That’s it. And the other thing that GenAI can never possess are the really important intangibles of life: emotions, subjective experiences, dreams, questions, wonder, feelings and everything else that goes into truly being alive and creative. -

Human creativity is intertwined with our consciousness, and no version of AI or GenAI will ever achieve the ability to express intrinsic motivation, passion or a desire to change the world for the better.?