Why learning about AI and Synthetic Biology is so imperative

For at least a year now, I’ve been engaged in an internal struggle over the unrelenting tides of artificial intelligence and synthetic biology innovation. At a visceral level— through conversations and exposure to the media— I am acutely aware of the impending waves of change, feeling their weight and significance instinctually, and also uneasy about the uncertainty of their implications—on me, my family and the greater world.

In a few words: I’ve been a little spooked.

Initially, my response was ephemeral—I felt a fleeting sense of distaste and a desire to bury my head in the sand. And that’s essentially what I did for months.

A few months ago, however, I woke up, and I confronted my resistance. I broke through my wall of resistance and embraced the opportunity to understand what I had been avoiding. This change in mindset, and eventually in behavior, was triggered by dozens of coaching session with my clients.

These conversations pushed me to recognize my responsibility and my personal interest in staying informed about these waves of technology. The stakes were too high—for me and everybody else.

And that’s why I wrote this piece.

For all of you readers, I wonder how you have been feeling about the undulating waves of technology. For example:

• How much effort have you made to reflect on how AI and synthetic biology apply to you and those around you?
• Have you too find yourself resisting this “onslaught” of technology, using an excuse such as “it’s all Greek to me?”

If you are taking the “it’s all Greek to me” stance, do you believe you can you afford to ignore the impact of these waves of technology, on your current job and on the evolution of your career? What are you doing now to learn about these transformations so you can creatively adapt, grow and thrive?

Sharing My Journey

About 3 months ago, something “clicked.” I felt an existential wave of anxiety overtake my body on multiple occasions—it was overwhelming and a little frightening. I was receiving an alert transmitted by my emotions, loud and clear. The problem was, I wasn’t sure where to start. I’m not a technologist and I have real concerns about the difficulties of containing the power of AI and synthetic biology. I wanted it all to just disappear.

Before this “click,” I found a useful narrative to help me cope. More specifically, I thought about my experience with econometric modeling in my 20s and couldn’t help but think that the foundations of AI were similar. Ironically, this created a dangerous complacence with my expertise. I’d think to myself “it’s just about modeling and prediction, that hasn’t changed. What has changed is the availability of data and computer processing power.“

Then, I started reading contemporary books on AI. I started with the Power and Progress by Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson of MIT and then read T he Coming Wave by Mustafa Suleyman, founder of DeepMind, a company acquired by Google that’s now at the center of the company’s AI program.

I also dove into the most recent research I could find. I read a report published by the Burning Glass Institute “Generative AI and the WorkForce,” then “Generative AI for Economic Research: Use Cases and Implications for Economists” published by the Brookings Institute, and “Gen-AI: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work ”published by the IMF, just to name a few. I also took a free Coursera course for the basic framing of AI.

Bottom line: I’ve gone from a mindset of resisting AI and synthetic biology to one of diving in to understand it better. I’ve made peace with my fears and concerns—and moved on to curiosity and learning. Don’t get me wrong, my concerns about how these waves will impact every layer of life remain.

Ubiquitous and Pervasive

During the last 12 months, I’ve coached more than 100 employees across a broad variety of industries in US, Europe and Asia. Many work in technology businesses themselves. Every coaching relationship starts with a specific client goal or change in mind and these can evolve over the course of the engagement. Here are some examples based on my roster of clients:

• I want to lead my team more effectively
• I want to have more influence on strategy and executive presence
• I want to increase my impact on the business
• I want to find a better balance between my professional objectives and my well being
• I need to learn to sell in my new role

Not a single client has proactively and explicitly mentioned any concern about adapting to the changes triggered by AI and synthetic biology. However, when I employ evocative or provocative interventions about how they feel about AI (and I almost always do at some point), the response is invariably negative and hesitant. I can’t think of a single client I’ve worked with who does not have a least a vague sense that AI is a threat. I see it in their body language and usually in the first words they use to express themselves.

Here are some examples:

• A compensation executive in the financial services industry. While he’s encouraged his broader HR organization to embrace AI, he’s discouraged by his peer’s refusal to explore the capabilities and embrace the potential opportunities.
• A late 20s adult looking to enter the asset management industry. His skill set is anchored in working with structured data and research; he’s now realizing these capabilities are increasingly being automated.
• A principal at a global management consulting firm. With a speciality in Life Sciences, she’s having trouble keeping up with the uses of AI for growing her consulting practice. She says she feels stuck.
• A portfolio manager. He’s worried that half of the analysis he does will be automated with AI. He believes this could mean layoffs on his team or eventually, being laid off himself.
• A recent graduate with strong research skills. According to recent publications, research in general is among the most vulnerable areas to AI. He’s wondering if this could explain the dearth of research opportunities.

All of these situations have one thing in common: AI is creating persistent uncertainty about the future. It is signaling changes that will affect people’s ability to find jobs, perform their jobs, and lead teams and organizations successfully. There’s confusion, in part, because of the extraordinary speed of advancement, which creates the impression that conceptual frameworks for understanding AI and synthetic biology become quickly outdated..

Despite these impressions, it is imperative for each individual to gain enough visibility in AI to optimize their answers to these three questions:

1. What tasks and jobs can and will AI automate? Now, in 12 months, in three years?
2. What jobs will use AI to enhance their efficiency, effectiveness and overall performance?
3. Given how this wave is expected transform our work, what actions an each person take to adapt, stay out of harms way, and perhaps even grow professionally?

Road to Somewhere

You know it, your friends know it, and I know it: if you haven’t done it already, now is the time to learn about AI (and in many cases, overcome your resistance). Even if you are against it, want to stopped it in its tracks, diving in and learning as much as we can about it is the only road to embracing it, regulating it and controlling its impact. The reality is, when human creativity, money and political forces converge and focus on something, it becomes nearly impossible to contain.

It’s important to approach AI with an open mindset so you can understand the changes you will need to make to adapt to this wave of technology. For example:

• Given the current and anticipated capabilities of AI, how would you change your personal growth agenda?
• In your current role, how can your area use AI to create business value?
• With which organizations or people within your business can you partner with to fully harness the potential of AI?
• In your 2024 plan, have you identified AI as an area to invest in?
• Do you have the talent to realize the potential of AI? If you don’t, what’s your problem to discover the unknown unknowns and crystalize future strategic activities?

A recent study by the Brookings Institute offers a good example. This study reviewed the field of economic research and classified it along six domains: ideation and feedback, writing, background research, coding, data analysis, and mathematical derivations. The piece when on to evaluate potential applications for AI for each. By doing so, conclusion were made as to the potential uses of AI for automation and augmentation. Here’s what the paper concluded:

“I expect that a growing number of researchers will incorporate LLMs into their workflows. This is likely to help to increase the overall speed of progress in economics, although it risks leaving behind those who do not take advantage of LLMs or do not have access, creating a new digital divide.”1

Replace the word “researchers” and consider the validity of this point of view on your role.

Key Takeaways

Most of us feel uncomfortable about the growing wave of AI and Synthetic Biology advances. While G-AI is the most talked about technology today, the idea of a world with AGI—artificial general intelligence—is scary. Some of us remember the scene in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 Space Odyssey when HAL (yes, IBM minus 1 letter) attempted to take over. The thought of “building” a human being through advances in biology makes most of squirm.

As individuals, the best way to deal with it is to learn about it. Even if you believe it has the potential to automate million of people out of a job or threaten the world with nuclear drones, the first step is always to get to know the technology and its cabilities. Once we do that, each of can decide how we want to respond to this immovable reality.

Paying close attention to the tasks of your current or future job, and reflecting on which tasks AI can automate and which tasks AI can enhance is an effective framework through which to develop a plan of action for your career, for your team, and for your company.

About David Ehrenthal

After a 25+ year career as a marketing executive and CEO, in the US and Europe, David created Mach10 Career & Leadership Coaching in 2021. He now coaches mid- to senior level executives on leadership, transitions, executive presence, work-life balance, sales performance, career growth, effective communications, adapting to change, building positive relationships, and increasing influence and impact.

Please email David at [email protected] or give him a ring at 617-529-8795 if you want to talk.

1

Anton Korinek, “Generative AI for Economic Research: Use Cases and Implications for Economists,” Journal of Economic Literature 2023, 61(4), 1281–1317