Insights on How to Talk About AI

Recently our CEO, Brad Heidemann shared with our employees some very beneficial tips on how to talk about AI. Read on to learn more:

I’ve spent a lot of time lately speaking with people about AI and I have a few observations that I’d like to share. There is so much to learn and think about. AI is going to fundamentally change our world so let’s embrace it and keep pushing forward. We can all be amazed and concerned about the future together.

In my conversations with people about AI, they are mostly confused about what AI is and how it’s going to affect them. It also doesn’t help that the media and Hollywood mostly portray stories about the AI apocalypse. I’ve been working on a method for how to give people a context to things about AI.

First, I talk about the evolution of technology as an extension of the human experience. “We invented wheelbarrows that made hauling bricks a lot easier." Sure we needed less people to haul bricks from one side of the city to the other, but everyone found new work to do and it worked out just fine. Efficiencies are a good thing not a bad thing. With AI we are extending the human mind, not just the human body. It’s doesn’t mean humans are going to go away, it just means that we will have more time and spend it doing other things. I have a bunch of examples about how technology made life easier and depending on the audience I just use a different metaphor. You all have your favorite stories about how some piece of technology made your life better. Just tell that story and explain to them that AI is just a new technology that is cool and is going to make your life better. No reason to be afraid and no, the robots are not taking over … at least not yet.

Second, most people don’t understand what AI is. They are confusing generative AI as the only AI. I try to organize it for them in that there are three basic categories of AI: generative AI, machine learning algorithms and deep learning engines. It’s important to frame the technology so people can follow a conversation about each type of AI and how it’s going to help. Generative AI is an extension of how we understand and create language, machine learning is how we optimize or improve something we do every day, and deep learning recognizes all the patterns that exist in your life. So, what if you can have an application that would help you create and communicate (Generative AI), an application that would point out to you how to be more effective and efficient (Machine learning), and an application that would look at a wide range of behaviors and patterns in your life and make recommendations. What are the correlations between how you spend your time, how/when/where you exercise, what you eat and your sense of wellness, and then you get a friendly suggestion for how to create a sense of wellness more often (deep learning). That all sounds pretty good to me. I can use AI as much or as little as I want, I can take the advice or not. We are still the humans, and we still have free will.

I usually spend the remainder of the conversation talking about how AI could improve their lives, what we are doing for our clients, and generally discussing a future world that is powered by ever smarter technology. If I’m lucky, the person I’m talking with gets AI and we create a shared vision of the future. Usually, those are fun conversations.

Try this three-phase approach when explaining AI to someone and see how well it works. What analogies would you use, will you set people at ease and will you be able to create a shared vision or ideate on cool applications of AI? AI is a brand-new subject for most people. Get out there, start conversations and see how it goes.