AI, the Super Human?

There is noise and chatter about AI. There is anxiety around its future implications for society and the world order. There is excitement in some circles about the immense potential of the technology to solve vexing problems.

We are now at a stage where you can love or hate this technology but can not ignore it.

So what is Artificial Intelligence?

Artificial intelligence refers to technologies that can make machines perform like humans. Machines can see, say, write, "think," and respond as we do.

Would you happen to know if this is new, though?

Let's explore some AI technologies that we, as consumers and enterprises, are already familiar with.

These technologies have become accessible over time and integrated into our everyday lives.

OCR, STT, and TTS have been in mainstream use for some time. Google, Apple, Amazon, and Meta have also been using AI in their products for decades. Waymo started the autonomous vehicle project in 2009, fifteen years ago, using several of these technologies to solve the problem of driverless cars.

So, what changed with GPT-3?

GPT-3 captured the world’s imagination by demonstrating that, for the first time, machines can think and respond as we do.

From the eyes of technical evangelists, Natural Language Processing (NLP) has come of age in the technological world.

What is Natural language processing?

Natural Language Processing (NLP) is a field of artificial intelligence focusing on the interaction between computers and human language.?

It involves teaching computers to understand, interpret, and generate human language. NLP itself is not new, either.

IBM's Watson won the Jeopardy Championship in 2011. E-mail writing automation, resume parsing, language translation, internet searches, and voice assistants are everyday examples of NLP.

What made the GPT-3 experience unique?

GPT-3 demonstrated an unprecedented understanding of language and produced coherent and informative text on various topics.

• Big Reveal: Overnight, anyone with an internet connection could interact with technology. We experienced it firsthand, mesmerized by its versatility and speed. It could answer any question, write a poem, draw an image, and create a video. It was a super-human.
• Sense of anxiety: Some people could imagine it as an assistant; others saw this as a menace. GPT-3 evoked memories of science fiction and Hollywood movies, ringing true.
• A mind reader: GPT-3 could respond intelligently despite the input being half-baked, misspelled, or grammatically incorrect. It could provide a comprehensive response and successfully predict our next questions.

What does AI mean for Enterprise Technology?

Technology must eventually develop an AI strategy for the enterprise. The landscape is evolving rapidly, and a wait-and-watch approach may be warranted, but some clear actions can be taken now.

Currently, massive investment is being made in four frontier large learning models (LLMs), which are the bedrock of NLP. These are GPT-n by Open AI, LaMDA, PaLM2 by Google, Claude by Anthropic, LlaMA by Meta, and BLOOM by a consortium.

CIOs have the unenviable job of choosing one or more models and building internal expertise around them. Perform PoCs and learn.

Create an exemplary architecture that trains models with internal data and context.

As the muscle builds, plug AI tools and models into existing business workflows and drive value.

What does AI mean for HR?

HR teams must be actively involved as AI evolves rapidly.

Recognize and accept the use of AI to perform daily tasks.

Raise awareness around the responsible use of AI.

Create a performance management strategy that recognizes innate human capability without the prism of AI.

Companies now have access to this great power. They have an obligation to their employees and customers to be responsible.

Successful companies will unleash creativity of their employees and partners to drive future growth cycles.