Generative AI: why you will never experience blank page syndrome ever again

I have been involved in what is called ‘AI’ (technically machine learning and/or data science) for more than 10 years now.?

I remember the times in 2013 or 2014 when even at a job fair recruiters did not know what a data scientist role was.

And soon I will put in memory the impact of the general public of AI , specifically on generative AI in the last few years: fear declined in various forms.

Fear that AI will somehow take over, that people will lose their job, that AI will control us etc.

Now I feel , or at least I hope, the public has come to realise AI, yes , it is powerful and it will help us to be more efficient in a variety of tasks.

Much more efficient.

No drama.

After this preamble, then how exactly AI will make us more efficient?

Well, it will speed up the learning curve of everything. Especially for newbies in a specific subject.

Few examples.

A new hire needs to write a newspaper piece in a South-East Asian country about its new energy plan. As an economist and journalist he may have experience in the energy industry but none in that country let alone specific things about an energy plan. He does not know where to start. He is probably anxious, can I do it?

An LLM (possibly trained for journalism and energy purposes) will give all the hints he once may have taken days to bring together. Does that mean his job is redundant now? No, he should pick up the knowledge the LLM will give him, just way faster than before. And by the way, he should still verify the source as he would do with any other source.

The first day as a software developer in c++ while he has few years of experience in php/html. As a first assignment he should make a fast implementation of a specific routine and then push it into a company library. Again, he does not know exactly where to start. He is probably anxious, can I do it? And again, here you go: code taylored LLM will suggest the first code implementation and what to write. Does that mean he should just pretend he has done it himself without learning how to do it? No, in fact his job will be to verify and check the output and code as much as he can.

A junior lawyer at a law firm. She has been assigned to review and search legal clauses for a specific council and draft commercial properties agreement. He has little knowledge about commercial property law and little knowledge on councils’ regulations. He does not know where to start. He is probably anxious, can I do it? And again, here you go: a legal fine tuned LLM with a specific RAG will suggest how to combine the council information with the commercial law. Does that mean she should just pretend she has done it herself without learning how to do it? No, in fact her job will be to verify and check the draft.

A junior marketing manager assigned to a new advert campaign for a client in the media sector. You know little about campaigns and little about the media sector. You do not know where to start. You are probably anxious, can I do it? Again you will use a genAI tool….

You should have got the gist by now.

Using AI and AI tools, will give you the opportunity to never start from a blank page.?

You should never feel anxious about a new task not even knowing where to start. Ever.

I would not underestimate the alleviation of anxiety when starting a new project with pressure on your shoulders: with AI, you can always know at least something about a specific industry or work, FAST. It is up to you to take advantage but not rely on that doing the work for you.

The fact that a calculator exists does not mean, in principle, you shouldn’t know how to make a multiplication. Sure you are slower than the machine, yet it is still on you to check if the machine, for whatever reason it is faulty.

No matter how little your knowledge and skills are, AI can make you ‘start’ in the right path straightaway. No anxiety due to the unknown. However, it is up to you to ‘finish’ the work , ‘owning what it has been produced’.

I hope it helps.

#ai #artificialintelligence #innovation #business #work #technology