Getting onboard with GenAI

Do you remember when everyone started talking about Chat-GPT? It was all over social media, post after post on LinkedIn from people who’d used it for odd reasons like writing a birthday card or others who heralded the end of coding. “I’ve just used to write a Python script that would have taken me ages”? - is a direct quote from a friend of mine, who immediately got a paid subscription to one of these services.?

If your job had anything to do with writing, be it content or code, then watch out, it was game over.?

Or so we thought.

Quickly, things turned a little sour, articles and blogs popped up about inaccuracies in what was produced. The education sphere was rife with students cheating on their essays, this was followed by tips on how to catch people out. False citations were a hot topic and biases kept popping up that were more than a little unsettling. How strange it was to see such human behaviours - mistakes and misinformed opinions in a tool that wasn’t human at all.?

This was all in parallel to the hype around image generation tools like Dall-E and Midjourney. This confused the hell out of us when you’d ask it to create a picture of a person and they had a few extra limbs but quickly got better and better with a few prompt adjustments. The results and speed can be awe-inspiring. But I’ll leave the debate on art for another time.?

Once the initial wonder and laughter at GenAI subsided, many sceptics remained. Asking more existential questions, you might have seen some very apt tweets encouraging the use of AI to make human lives better, so we could have more time to make art ourselves.?

While I wasn’t totally on the bandwagon, I kept thinking, surely there is a way to have both?

Using automation where we can, and use humans where we can, adds more value than an algorithm.?

Generative AI or GenAI is a great tool, but it’s not that new, what changed in the past couple of years, is the awareness around these tools and that great driver of adoption - free access. Suddenly, we the public had something incredibly powerful at our fingertips, with almost no idea how to use it or what the pitfalls were.?

By using GenAI I started to think more about the purpose behind some things. For example, if we think about students and essays, the essay isn’t the point. The critical thinking is, the research is, the methodology, it’s not just a writing task, it’s far more nuanced. By using GenAI blindly students run the risk of robbing themselves of their own education. Students using GenAI to write essays or conduct research, might not be the worst thing if they have the skills to assess what they get. I’ve been using search engines to speed up research that would have taken days in a library, so is this approach all that different? I don’t think the tools are the problem. If students are cheating, then perhaps we need to find other ways to assess them. I rather like an essay, but I’m still asking the question. Because new technology needs new approaches.?

I’m sure many of us have been experimenting with GenAI to some degree in our personal or professional lives and quickly realised that it’s far from the finished article. But it can be a useful starting point. As you’d expect with any disruptive tech, not everyone is thrilled at the notion their staff might be automating parts of their jobs without consent, or plugging in proprietary information in public models. And several companies took steps to limit or remove access to their infrastructure. Frankly, I don’t blame them, though I hope it’s a temporary solution while everyone figures out the best way to incorporate and utilise these tools. Part of that journey needs more education and I hate to say it - rules.

Because? “Rules help control the fun!”

These tools and the models that they trained in are here. They are available and people will use them. You can lock the doors and hope it goes away, but it won’t. Look at prohibition - that didn’t stop anyone from drinking alcohol, it just moved it out of sight. Change is scary but hiding from it won’t resolve anything. Instead, what I think companies need to do is embrace this tech, but with a little bit of a strategy.?

Bear in mind, that the output from AI isn't just generative. Marketing and Ad tech have been benefiting from machine learning and algorithms for decades now - the entire programmatic ecosystem has relied on it, just like the stock market. It’s been there so long, that we don’t even think about that much, which is strange when you realise so many parts of your life from the price of food to everything you see online are being run automatically, and have been for some time.?

GenAI is just another wave in what is now the new norm - because the only constant is that everything changes.??

You have to ask yourself, how prepared is your business for these changes??

Because if you don’t start to think about it, your employees are going to move ahead with or without your permission. We can learn from how we’ve approached new things in the past, namely to understand it, and work out the best ways to use it with a little bit of learning and encouragement. It’s then you can let people loose and see what happens with the tools you’ve selected. If adaptations are needed, then do that. Just because a rule is made, doesn’t mean it can’t be altered as things move on, the law does this all the time.?

Whether you’re looking at GenAI for your own use, or your companies, I suggest a critical review of the models out there, creating some governance for your approach and codifying it before jumping in.?

Now, I’m one of the most jaded people you could meet, but I’ve made a career out of embracing tech and seeing where it leads us. Whether you think it’s hype or a horror show, getting to grips with how to use these tools in the best way, won’t do you any harm. I’m all for making our lives a bit easier and definitely think we can speed up a lot of “busy work” but I do have a pause and ask myself questions when it comes to the more creative side of things. Something I’m sure I’ll keep pondering as this space evolves.?

As my colleague Ian likes to remind me -

"Fear shouldn't be a barrier. Cautious exploration is a better attitude".

Want to read more about GenAI?

• Check out this fascinating article from Wired and this academic study on why we prefer human-created artwork.
• Dive into the IEEE’s critical review of the GenAI tools.

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