This is not going to be a brief history of AI development and how it impacts knowledge workers especially in the technology industry. I am going to jump directly to how it has impacted me. I am a Data Analyst by profession. The first time I experienced the “magic” of AI was when I created my OpenAI account, in early 2022, just to see what all the hype about “ChatGPT” was. I was blown away. So much so that I started using it regularly for coding projects and writing code for automating a lot of boring stuff in my job. I started reading articles about Sam Altman and watched him rise into the zeitgeist as some kind of a “prophet”. I was impressed with the guy. I gradually started using ChatGPT for pretty much everything: cooking recipes, career advice, opinions, research, advice, ideas…
Then came the AI hype storm. 2023 and all anyone could talk about was AI. Roughly mid year 2023, and pretty much every third software service provider was selling some kind of “AI” based product. Every week there was a new model coming out from the MAANG companies. Some open source, most closed. Every week there was some new benchmark test bragging about the strength of one model over the other. By the end of 2023, I felt that I had missed the AI Hype train. Then came the LinkedIn posts, the YouTube shorts, the tutorial storm, the courses…
2024 and I had started feeling a little worried. Senior leadership in my company had started talking about “AI”. There was no meeting in which AI was not discussed. Everyone was talking about it. No one had a clue about how to incorporate it. Including me. No shame in admitting it.
The latter half of 2024, I lost my job, along with many others. Cost cutting measures, we were told. But to be honest, the AI hype had derailed our product offering to the world. Because now everyone wanted to do “something with AI”. While not a direct loss, I had lost my job to AI. In a way. At the same time, while job hunting, I was using AI to sharpen my skill set, learn new technologies, write blogs, develop projects, prepare for interviews, modify my resume, build cover letters. AI was helping me find a job and land interviews. I was also slowly realizing how powerful this tool was.
In the right hands, AI is an incredibly powerful tool. In the wrong hands, AI is an incredibly powerful weapon. Very generic statement, but it’s the truth. But let’s come back to my little world. What really worries me is that companies are going to use it to automate everything. But the true control of the tool will be limited only to a few companies. Everyone else, will depend on them. These companies are OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Meta. Open source models will give us some home but not for long. Leaders of these companies will keep echoing the optimism that AI will change the world for better. People like Sam Altman will continue to say an optimistic thing one day and a pessimistic thing another day. We will continue to hope that AI will change the world for the better. For some time.
While I do see how incredibly powerful it is, AI tools don’t seem to be solving our biggest issues. Or atleast no one is interested in solving the big problems using AI. I don’t hear about a any new models being trained to detect cancers or identify new chemicals or solve healthcare insurance problems or identify the best way to reforest land or identify new ways to build buildings etc. All I hear or read about is how AI can do your job better. Or how one can use AI to earn money. Or how companies can use AI to save money. Money. That is all I ever hear about.
I am not worried about “the singularity”. I think it is a very vague term. I say, let it happen. Let it come. Sooner than later. Let there be a “sentient” AI. Let it happen now rather than when we are all dependent on AI for all our knowledge needs. Will it be the end of us? I don’t know. I hope not. Will it save us? I hope not. I think we should be able to that ourselves. Also, it doesn’t seem so.
But, can it help us? Can it help us be better? I hope so.
Finding the Method in the Madness 