The recent advances in the field of Artificial Intelligence have been interesting. For example, take DALL.E.2, which can create images based on text descriptions. The image below is from the input “Panda and a tiger in a lab with sparkling chemicals, cyberpunk” (Cyberpunk is the style of image)
Another example is GPT-3 which is an AI program that can generate essays or summaries based on the input question or a prompt. Yes, a blog post too. Look at this tweet which shows two texts, one by a CA and one by GPT-3, and finally, GitHub AutoPilot, which generates code based on the requirements given as simple text!
Although it is incredible that a computer program can do these tasks, with every new version of these AI models, there is a wave of negativity due to the concern that eventually, AI will make humans obsolete. I do not think this is true, and here are my thoughts on it with regard to different aspects such as Automation, Jobs, and Creativity:
Automation with AI
Automation is a core feature of computing. We automated calculations using programs such as spreadsheets, we automated storing and manipulating data using computer storage, and we also automated letters, messaging, and on some level, social interactions using emails and chatbots. In addition to this, specialized devices such as ATMs automated banking jobs such as withdrawals, check your balance, etc. AI automation is just a new domain in this chain of automation.
With AI, we can automate tasks that were previously thought of as impossible such as creating art, writing, coding, etc. However, the idea of automating the tasks that humans did manually, many times more efficiently and quicker than us, is the basis of the computer revolution.
Now even though a lot of jobs did go obsolete after the first wave of automation, it did create so many new jobs, one of the most popular of them being coding! So how will AI affect jobs?
AI and Jobs
If you are a programmer and you hear a program will just bang out code in seconds that takes you days to do, or an artist who finds out an AI can create art on a text prompt that takes 2 mins to write, or a writer who finds out an AI that never gets writer’s block, you are bound to be worried. However, there are two things to note here, one, the AI programs work on human input and hence are useless if a human providing the input is absent. In all of the examples given above, a text prompt is necessary which must be provided by a human. Second, a use case that will be very useful in my opinion is generating templates quickly without spending too much time on the process.
For example, when I was at my first job, I was working on a new feature for a release that needed a UI to be developed from scratch. Since we did not have front-end developers, I worked with my team lead and created 3 versions which took us almost a month, and then we ended up doing a 4th in the last week before the release! This process would have been far less painful if I had an AI that could generate basic code structures quickly, based on my prompts.
My point is, even though AI automation might make some jobs obsolete in the long term, it will create a host of new jobs and also help us to try out different ideas more quickly.
Hence the thing we need to be ready for is learning the new skills required for efficiently using AI. It is possible that instead of having a single career for our whole life, we will have to keep updating ourselves just like a neural network keeps getting better with more training iterations. The only difference would be we would be developing our creative skills while the computer will be updating its logical skills like pattern recognition.
This brings me to my final point,
AI and Human Creativity
No matter how good the AI gets, there is no indication yet, that it will be able to create on its own i.e. without explicit instructions from humans. It will always be the humans who do the creative work and then the AI takes over in automating the steps that we define.
As far as we know today, creativity cannot be automated.
Abstracting a problem or a requirement into a structure that can be automated by a computer is a task that will require human creativity. In addition to computer science, it is true for all fields such as art, music, writing, etc. The artist will define the requirements such as what the painting should contain and how the elements should be placed, while the computer takes care of colors, boundaries, etc. This will also make many fields more accessible to people because AI will help you to create using your brain and you won’t be limited by your physical limitations. Personally, for me, DALL.E.2 is very useful precisely because of this reason. I have a lot of ideas on what illustrations I want to use and how they should be, but if I try to draw them, my hands make sure they are atrocious. With DALL.E.2, as long I can come up with a creative idea, the AI helps me with the drawings :)
Finally, I would also like to mention that even though I am optimistic about AI in general, there are a few challenges such as AI bots that make hurtful content or deepfakes to create controversies or the comparatively benign, cheating in exams using AI.
The AI community will have to address these challenges moving forward, but in the larger scheme of things, AI will enable us to do more creative tasks while it takes care of the routine jobs which would help all of us to express ourselves in a previously inaccessible way.
I hope that, like me, this article makes you more optimistic and excited about AI!
That’s it for this issue. I hope you found this article interesting. Until next time!
An article I found interesting: An explainer on how ants aid the environment
A podcast I found interesting: Tim Urban: Elon Musk, Neuralink, AI, Aliens, and the Future of Humanity | Lex Fridman Podcast #264