TOTW 16.5 - Experiencing the Exponential Wave

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After weeks adrift in Namibia's breathtaking expanses, my re-entry into the Western world's whirlwind felt like being slapped awake by the future. Benny, a fellow traveller and small-scale video entrepreneur from Namibia, sparked my curiosity mid-flight with tales of OpenAI's latest marvel, Sora, claiming it offered unprecedented video quality. This conversation was just the prelude to my post-journey digital deep dive, where the tidal wave of advancements left me astounded.

In my quest to make sense of this avalanche of innovation, I stumbled upon a staggering statistic comparison that vividly illustrates the surge from GPT-3 in 2021 to ChatGPT in 2024:

?? Words Per Day: 4.5B to 100B

?? Words Per Hour: 187.5M to 4.1B

?? Tokens Per Second: 70K to 1.5M

Reflecting on my Basic Predictions

Reflecting on my 2024 predictions, I was not surprised to see many hitting the mark. Let's take a brief look:

?? Exponential Wave: The subject of today's musings.

?? Multimodal AI: Diving deeper, it's clear the new AI systems are quickly gaining multimodal capabilities.

?? Video Generation: And Sora wasn't the sole star in the video galaxy.

?? Music Generation: Harmonies are hitting high notes, with outcomes growing increasingly remarkable.

Hyper-Automation Takes Centre Stage

Hyper-automation's tide is rising fast, covering domains like legacy modernization and on-the-fly coding, to customer support revolutions, such as Klarna's impressive AI feats. This AI managed 2.3 million customer requests in a month, equivalent to the workload of 700 full-time employees, with a 25% reduction in error rates.

The Ripple Effect Across Professions

Customer Service

The impact is already tangible, with Klarna's AI performing at par with human agents. Though no direct job losses at Klarna were reported, the broader implications for employment in customer service are unmistakable. Article to be found here. Summary:

?? In one month, the AI (powered by GPT-4) handled 2.3 million customer requests. This is the equivalent of 700FTE.

?? Customer satisfaction is on par with human agents, but error rate in resolving queries declined by 25%

?? 24/7 available in 23 markets, fluent in 35 languages

Coding

The evolution toward higher-order computer languages, increasingly resembling human communication, heralds a seismic shift. Jensen Huang of Nvidia provocatively suggests that the future of computing will render traditional programming obsolete, emphasizing technology's role in making human language the ultimate programming tool.

“I want to say something and it’s gonna feel completely opposite of what people feel. You probably recall over the course of the last 5 - 10 years, almost everybody who sits on a stage like this would say it is vital that your children learn computer science. Everybody should learn how to program. And in fact, it’s almost exactly the opposite. It is our job to create computeing technology such that nobody has to program. And that the program language is human” (Jensen Huang)

Agency/Marketing and Entertainment Industry

AI's prowess in crafting engaging text, generating images, and even composing original music, signals transformative changes for marketing agencies and the entertainment industry.

?? AI is proficient in writing good and engaging text. Give it the content you require, and it can do magic

?? AI is proficient in generating original images to accompany texts on your websites, brochures, presentations, …

?? AI is starting to generated original music to use as a score in your videos

?? AI will certainly change the video editor’s job

While challenges loom, true artists and creatives may find in AI a powerful ally for unprecedented exploration, “to boldly go where no man has gone before” ??

In conclusion, having my eyes reopened to the relentless march of AI after a brief respite was both exhilarating and overwhelming. The exponential wave of innovation continues to swell, promising to reshape our professional landscapes in ways we are only beginning to comprehend. Question is if and when a next wave will come crashing down on us. This moment may well be AGI.