Leading in the Age of AI
A principal I coach recently received an email from a parent challenging her school’s use of ChatGPT. She was unsure of how to respond and so we spent some of our coaching session discussing how to deal with the situation. As we talked this leader realised that, above all else, she needed to increase her understanding of AI in order to confidently engage with these types of inquiries.
Our conversation got me thinking about the fundamental AI knowledge that leaders need to safely and wisely navigate their teams at this time. Some of the fundamentals I have already covered in my recent posts about how I am using ChatGPT, AI’s neural networks , AI’s long and short term impacts and my last post about the three stages of AI.
Here are three more things which I think are critical for leaders to understand:
The impact of AI, like all previous technological advancements, is following the exponential curve. However, humans have an unfortunate tendency to think about change in a stepwise fashion. For example take the following mathematical problem:
Imagine a pond with a single lily in its centre. Each day the number of lilies in the pond doubles. On day one there is one lily. On day two there are two. It takes 40 days to fill the pond with lilies. On what day is the pond half full?
If the first answer that pops into your head is 20, then this is your stepwise thinking in action. Your reasoning would have been “Half of 40 is 20 therefore the pond will be half full on day 20.” The correct answer is 39. With the number of lilies doubling every day, day 40 sees the pond going from half full to full.?
Exponentially driven change, such as that which we are witnessing with AI, mirrors the growth illustrated in the lily pond problem above. We forget that when something multiplies at a constant rate over time, it leads to increasingly rapid growth as illustrated in the graph below.
People are often amazed at how fast a new technology appears to be adopted. They mistakenly think of it as an overnight success. What they fail to realise is that a technology has been unobtrusively growing in the background, often for years, ahead of becoming disruptive.
Some people are likening the AI revolution to the Industrial Revolution. In terms of societal disruption they are not wrong, but the speed at which the AI revolution is happening is very different to anything humankind has seen before. Dr Andrew Lensen from the Victoria University notes:
“In the Industrial Revolution, machines had to be built to replace people. It took years to make the transition. With artificial intelligence, you know you can replace humans in a few days if you buy the right product from the right supplier.”
The Industrial Revolution happened at a rate that meant people whose jobs were replaced by the machines were then re-employed in the factories.?
Dr Andrew Lensem believes:
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“People might eventually be able to retrain and get other jobs but that’s something that takes time and AI could impact a very large amount of the workforce in a very short period - which is quite distinct from what we’ve seen before.”
Often senior leaders rely on their IT experts to guide them in the use of new technologies. Many commentators in the AI field believe that the oversight of AI must sit within the senior leader level of an organisation. AI is more than a technological disruption, it is a human disruption with organisation-wide implications.?
As leaders we cannot afford to take a wait and see approach to AI. To do so disadvantages the future of our organisations and the people we serve. If conversations about acceptable AI use only happen after we are challenged we risk being caught on the back foot like the leader I mentioned at the start of this post. Likewise allowing a free-for-all by not providing clear guidance around the use of AI can lead to difficult conversations with team members and privacy risks for organisations.
The first step towards mitigating the risks mentioned above is to grow our own knowledge about AI. This is not always easy. There is so much information out there that it is difficult for busy leaders to distil it down to the essentials. This is something I have been focussed on for the past six months and is the work I have used to inform my recent posts.
In August I am running my first Masterclass Miniseries. It is called Leading in the Age of AI. I have designed it for leaders who want to:
If you’d like to be better equipped to lead AI in your organisation then come and join us. The investment for up to three leaders from your organisation to attend the Miniseries is $990 (+GST).?
I don’t think it takes a crystal ball to predict that challenges about AI are coming. As leaders we set ourselves up for success by knowing the answer ahead of being asked the question.
Til next time
Carolyn
P.S. I am also offering Leading in the Age of AI as a one-day in-person workshop. Fill in this form if you’re interested in finding out more.
My name is Carolyn. I set leaders, teams and organisations up for success by equipping them with powerful tools and strategies. Sign up for my weekly blog (https://eepurl.com/givMTn) or message me if you’d like to know more.