Artificial Intelligence …a contentious topic

Artificial Intelligence (AI) - an artificial entity that can think and learn almost like humans

AI can accumulate data faster and smoothen business communication. Some AIs are designed to simulate human behavior. And the quick decision-making feature of AI makes it ideal for many businesses.

Although conceived in 1956, AI began to dominate public consciousness thanks to the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022. In just two months, the bot had one hundred million users, making it one of the fastest-growing consumer apps ever.

AI makes intricate calculations and decisions easier through machine learning and other advanced programs. In short, AI can do work that would typically require human intelligence.

Many people still associate AI with science-fiction dystopias, but that characterization is waning as AI develops and becomes more commonplace in our daily lives. Today, artificial intelligence is a household name, and sometimes even a household presence (hi, Alexa!).

AI systems are based on data, a lot of data, from text to videos to images, in fact anything that you can conceive on the World Wide Web. This data is trained with sophisticated algorithms to derive patterns.

AI is adept at processing and analyzing troves of data much faster than a human brain could and then the software can then return with synthesized courses of action and present them to the human user. In this way, AI can help game out possible consequences of each action and streamline the decision-making process. However, AI currently has a difficult time completing commonsense tasks in the real world. Building common sense this way is not natural.

AI has various uses in the current world. From healthcare to security and advanced technology development, all of them require AI. Conversational AI facilitates machine and human interaction through messaging and language-based conversations.

The Crowded AI Marketplace

There is a glut of competitors, from startups and incumbents, all aiming to cash in on the AI craze. A surge in investment into the technology has followed, with VCs pouring billions into companies like Inflection AI and Anthropic . Microsoft reportedly invested $10 billion into ChatGPT maker OpenAI .

Additional AI competitors include: Ada , Manychat , IBM Watson , Flow Xo , Landbot , Dialogflow , Amplify.Ai , Oracle Digital Assistant , Imperson , Botsify , etc.

Google introduced Bard , (an experimental conversational AI service powered by LaMDA) in Feb 2023. ?Google's Med-PaLM 2 , an AI tool designed to answer questions about medical information, has been in testing at the Mayo Clinic research.

Microsoft's Bing AI chatbot service became available to anyone to use in May 2023. Similar to ChatGPT , Bing chatbot works by drawing information from the world wide web.

Meta has been in the slow lane. In February when competitors Microsoft and Google announced their AI chatbots, Meta rolled out the first, smaller version of LLaMA , restricted to researchers. But now the company released a suite of AI models, which include versions of LLaMA 2 in different sizes, as well as a version of the AI model that people can build into a chatbot, similar to ChatGPT. Unlike ChatGPT , which people can access through OpenAI’s website, the model must be downloaded from Meta’s launch partners Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, and Hugging Face.

Apple is now creating its own AI-powered chatbot that some engineers are calling “Apple GPT ,” according to a report from Bloomberg. The company reportedly does not have any solid plans to release the “Ajax ” technology to the public yet, but it is estimated it will be latter this year.

AI Startups - Tons of Cash but Not Enough Data

The difference between humans and AI lies in the human comprehension to work through emotions where AI runs on data. The precision and efficiency of an AI depend upon the data input within its program. Big companies aren’t so willing to share proprietary data with startups looking to power their large-language models. Today, having the right data is more critical than ever for success.

Now that building the actual models has become somewhat commoditized, the real value is in the data. Larger tech incumbents (Microsoft , Alphabet , Meta , Amazon , Apple ) hold an advantage over startups in generative AI applications in part because they already have the trust of large customers who are comfortable with them handling data.

Microsoft’s share price closed up nearly 4% Tuesday, reaching a record $359.49, following the company’s reveal of Microsoft 365 Copilot , an AI-powered version of the productivity platform. Microsoft, which saw its market cap hit $2.67 trillion with the increase, is the latest tech company to enjoy an artificial intelligence-fueled boost. Apple’s stock pops briefly just on the report it’s developing its own (Ajax ) equivalent of ChatGPT.

Impact on labor

There is growing uncertainty regarding long-term predictions of the impact of AI on employment. Many expect unemployment to increase in the short run as human employment in some tasks and jobs becomes obsolete. With its impeccable automation capability, AI is taking over many of the jobs previously performed by human beings. The concern for the safety and future of jobs has constantly been growing.

AI firms excel at staying lean and automating work. The mentality of AI startups is AI-first. AI can almost function as a real employee. So, you get AI to do the job before humans do it.

Generative AI, which learns from past data to create new content, is seen as a game-changer for workplace efficiency. However, unlike past tech booms, the generative AI craze appears to bring fewer jobs and replaces many. This presents labor questions as more businesses adopt AI.

At the end of the 19th century, about 50% of American workers were employed in agriculture sector in the United States. Today their number is between 1 and 2%. This transition resulted in substantial short- and medium-term unemployment as jobless farmers migrated to the cities for factory employment.

Today nearly 80% of the American workforce is employed in service industries. The key question is whether the revolution in the labor market due to the impact of artificial intelligence will lead to a similar result. Many businesses and websites are already using chatbots and generative AI in various work-related operations.

The World Economic Forum concluded that AI would likely take away 85 million jobs globally by 2025, it would also generate 97 million new jobs in fields ranging from big data and machine learning to information security and digital marketing.

A report from Goldman Sachs suggests AI could complete a quarter of all work now done by humans

Some analysts expresses pessimism regarding the impact of AI on the labor market due to its impact on vulnerable groups. The concern is that AI may be bad for the more vulnerable in the labor markets like the ones who will not be that easy to adapt to a new environment.

A McKinsey Global Institute report suggests that as many as 375 million workers (roughly 14% of the global workforce) may need to switch occupational categories as automation, and advances in AI disrupt the world of work.

Occupations in education, finance, medicine, media, security/military, sales, customer service, IT, and legal activities, (some which often require many years of education) and core functions rely on accumulated experience to reach decisions, may find themselves at risk of automation from AI.

Rapid developments, combined with the falling costs of producing and adopting these new technologies, suggest that western economies may be on the cusp of an AI revolution which could fundamentally change the workplace. It is clear that the potential for [AI-driven jobs] substitution remains significant, raising fears of decreasing wages and job losses.

At the other end of the scale, the chemical and natural resources sectors are tipped to be least impacted by AI, with the majority of working time in these industries dedicated to non-language-related tasks. Administrative workers have the highest risk of being replaced by digital resources, but jobs that require manual labor and outdoor tasks will feel "little effect" by AI growth in those industries.

In the short-term AI is unlikely to be able to replace jobs requiring human skills such as judgement, creativity, physical dexterity, and emotional intelligence. The skills most in demand from employers over the next five years will include analytical thinking, empathy and active listening, and leadership and social influence.

AI cannot create, conceptualize, or plan strategically. While AI is great at optimizing for a narrow objective, it is unable to choose its own goals or to think creatively. Nor can AI think across domains or apply common sense, yet.

AI cannot feel or interact with feelings like empathy and compassion. Therefore, AI cannot make another person feel understood and cared for. Even if AI improves in this area, it will be extremely difficult to get the technology to a place where humans feel comfortable interacting with robots in situations that call for care and empathy, or what we might call “human-touch services.”

The idea that AI can get jobs done which require human intelligence has frightened many. One thing is clear: It will require an astronomical amount of money (estimated to be north of $50 Billion) to retrain and transition a massive number of displaced workers and decades to be completed. AI still needs humans to create it and give it orders for doing the job that humans need. You can rest assured that your boss will not fire you over a robot.

Artificial intelligence offers great promise to drive business forward and deliver valuable insights.

The AI revolution is changing the way we interact with technology. Every passing day, we are witnessing increasingly more advanced AI and robots.

AI will liberate us from routine work, give us an opportunity to follow our hearts, and push us into thinking more deeply about what really makes us human.

Where will we find the courage and audacity to take on this gargantuan task? We are the generation that will inherit the unprecedented wealth from AI, so we must also bear the responsibility of rewriting the social contract and reorienting our economies to promote human flourishing.