What I have learned after giving 63 Hours of AI Workshops.

After nearly 63 hours leading workshops on artificial intelligence, with participants ranging from retirees to eager startup founders, HR professionals, and job seekers, I've gathered a trove of insights and a growing sense of urgency that borders on anxiety. This article was triggered by a recent interview between Emad Mostaque and Peter Diamandis, which you can watch here. It echoed many of the concerns I've encountered firsthand. While Emad spoke from his perspective as the former CEO of Stability AI—a company pioneering AI decentralization through its efforts with Stable Diffusion, the open-source, text-to-image generative AI—I found our concerns intersecting, especially on the need for widespread education and engagement with AI technology.

It’s startling how little most people know about where AI stands today, even with technologies that are not on the bleeding edge like autonomous agents or near-AGI systems. This gap isn't just a trivial oversight; it's a chasm that threatens to split society into the technologically privileged and the left-behinds. Each workshop I conduct reveals this divide, and while I am thrilled to enlighten, I am also alarmed at the scale of the task ahead. It is satisfying to see the reaction on people's faces when I show them the current state of AI—which is already two months old—and demonstrate how, by using structured prompt systems, one can elicit great and accurate responses from LLMs like ChatGPT or CoPilot. Yet, this is merely scraping the surface of what there is to know and learn about AI.

During those workshops, participants often ask me about the future or a vision of the future, and with AI, it often feels like we're only looking a few months ahead, not years, as we usually do when we talk about "the future." The pace of AI development is so rapid that new models and capabilities emerge every 3 to 6 months. This breakneck speed doesn't just redefine innovation timelines; it challenges our ability to keep the public informed and engaged. My mission has evolved to match this pace, striving to turn complex AI concepts into accessible knowledge for everyone. However, one can only cram so much information into a three-hour workshop without prompting people to run out of the room with their hands in the air.

The most critical step in these times for understanding what is really happening, is education. The disparity in AI awareness between generations is stark. Adults, engrossed in daily life and job responsibilities, struggle to grasp AI advancements. Meanwhile, students, though they have the time, lack proper guidance. Many teachers and school administrators are themselves uninformed about AI, leaving a void where there should be vibrant, engaging education starting as early as primary school. As AI will significantly impact today's working population, its transformative influence on our children in the near future will be even more profound.

Furthermore, it’s not just the young who need to be prepared. Companies, institutions, and organizations of all sizes need to urgently educate their employees about AI—not just its professional implications but also the personal ones. For the elderly, who have only just come to grips with smartphones and the internet, the prospect of AI-powered care and assistance isn't a distant future—it's an imminent reality. They, too, need to be brought into the conversation, ensuring they are not just passive recipients but active, informed participants in this AI era.

Reflecting on my journey and the dozens of faces I've encountered, the weight of my mission grows. Every workshop, every podcast episode with Nora—my AI assistant and co-host on "The Proteus Effect"—is another step towards bridging the digital divide. Yet, it still feels like a drop in the ocean. In reality, this effort requires a collective push—a societal commitment—to ensure that the AI tsunami doesn't sweep us away but lifts us all higher.

As I often say at the end of a heavy workshop discussion, don’t fret; just keep an open mind and learn. The most important skill one can foster right now is a learning mindset, being flexible and adaptable! It's not about predicting the future perfectly; it's about preparing diligently and engaging passionately, so when the AI future does confront us—and it surely will—we’re ready to meet it with open arms. I want to believe that AI is here for the betterment of humankind and that we will learn to live and work together with AI, forming a co-intelligence, as it were.

If you want to know more about what I am trying to do, just reach out. I am always happy to chat and share insights.

Pascal...and Nora