The future is here with OpenAI. How do we stay ahead in an increasingly intuitive world?

The 3 seconds taken to type "Sydney skyline with the sky as an exploding nebula, digital art" was all it took to generate the above royalty-free visual spectacle. The striking display and instant satisfaction is as close as I can describe to real magic - awe-inspiring and somewhat frightening all at the same time.

This is the beginning of a future with AI, where we take another technologically evolutionary step into a world with increased intuition and intelligence.

Since the beginning of December, like many others in the Twittersphere, I have been playing around with #ChatGPT, the free preview of an artifical intelligence platform released by OpenAI . After I registered my interest at chat.openai.com I was met with a simple text box no different from the many chat bots experienced in the past. However, once I started experimenting with questions and requests, the quality of answers were astonishing.

Aside from asking it straightforward, fact-based questions, I threw all kinds of complicated and sometimes obscure requests at it, such as:

"Please summarise the pros and cons of investing in hydrogen exchange traded funds" "Please design an 11-step plan to improve basketball playmaking as a power forward" "What is your advice on moving a large file cabinet down stairs without access to a trolley" "Write an intro email for my meeting with Elrond in Rivendell from Lord of the Rings"

Each time, it instantly provided detailed and often insightful answers tailored to my specifications. I discovered that the platform's uses extend to very complex requests as well - writing computer code, compiling industry-relevant marketing copy, designing text-based interactive games, generating university-level essays, etc. Ryan Reynolds even used it to create a "mildly-terrifying" ad for Mint Mobile.

I even tried odd and random questions, which still generated relevant output within seconds:

It feels a little too good to be true upon first use, and like anything so sorcery-like, when the novelty wears off, the natural next question becomes - what are the risks?

When I plugged in the question of "what are the future risks to humanity" into ChatGPT and asked it to summarise its initial 5-point output in one paragraph, it generated the following:

"In the future, ChatGPT has the potential to bring significant benefits to humanity, but it also poses certain risks, depending on its use and implementation. These risks include job displacement, deepfake generation, amplification of biases and unintended consequences. To mitigate these risks, its development and use must be guided by ethical considerations, transparency and accountability, to ensure that the risks of this technology are minimized and its benefits are maximized. It is crucial to use ChatGPT responsibly, ethically and with the goal of benefiting humanity."

A relatively accurate summary, especially considering increasing global reports on interventions and restrictions on use from the education, creative arts, and cybersecurity sectors.

But just like previous technological leaps that helped us work, live, and organise as a species, ChatGPT (and AI) is no different to how the alphabet, calculator, or internet reshaped humanity. Each time we marveled at the possibilities, navigated through the challenges, and ultimately became better off as a result.

So in this future world of promise and anticipation, how should we best adapt in a human-centric manner to maximise the possibilities that unravel?

The Art of Attention -?As opposed to neatly-articulated corporate speak, human-centric communication is elevated through emotional engagement elements such as curiosity, anticipation, humor, and surprise. It's ironic that there is now argument about the supposedly scripted nature of AI when much of current marketing copy is written in formal and formulaic ways. What happened to captivating with stories and visualising content for impact? The world is now full of noise, and we would all be better served to remember that attention is a valuable resource that needs to be deliberately approached.

From Compliance to Empowerment - So much of modern education is still entrenched in following instructions and knowledge retention. With AI potentially disrupting the value of knowledge, it creates an opportunity for empowerment through experiential, inquiry, and scenario-based learning that develops critical social-emotional skills. How do we engage others in meaningful and authentic experiences that are relevant to their lives and interests, with the traditional role of teaching evolving to one of facilitator and mentor.

The Human Connection - There are many great and unique attributes about being "human" - empathy, compassion, learnability, collaboration, honesty and transparency. When we get caught up with repetitive and non-collaborative work, it creates growing disconnects to the meaning of purpose, no matter how well optimised the workflow. At Dale Carnegie Australia whenever we get the opportunity to engage with a client in change management, we are proud of our emphasise on the emotional connection and the "human" element of change adoption.

Humanity leapfrogged evolution through our ability to collaborate and work together. We leveraged the agricultural revolution to build society and made the significant transition from our hunting and gathering ancestors. As time went on, similarly major technological advancements throughout history pushed us to adapt and be more deliberate each time with our time and attention.

So just like the world builders of early civilisation, when irrigation and farming liberated the farmers to focus their efforts elsewhere, how will you invest your attention in the age of AI?