Artificial Intelligence

For decades, there has been talk that robots will replace menial labor jobs. This seemed plausible because some of the earliest use cases of machines taking over the work of humans was on the assembly lines or in the farmers’ fields.

It was thought, until relatively recently, that the realm of knowledge work and creative endeavors would always be monopolized by humans. That view of AI has been inverted in recent months.

The summer of 2022 will go down as one of the most remarkable revolutions in technology in history. 

Throughout the past six months, new AI use cases have emerged for consumers and businesses on a daily basis. AI is now doing things such as creating the image you see above, editting podcasts and videos, handling customer inquiries, writing resumes and blog posts, and even managing our social media accounts.

We are seeing AI replace humans at the things that we thought were uniquely human i.e. activities requiring creativity. Many of these technologies have been around for years but the fascinating thing is that so many of them have reached a level of competence where they are now outperforming their humans counterparts.

Turns out, the physical world applications of AI are the most challenging. Having AI that can act as a barista or burger flipper is possible but much harder than originally thought. Our buildings are still built by human hands. Our packages are still delivered by humans.

When you add sensors to the equation things are much more complicated than what is required with the creative applications. A robot that has to move through three dimensional space requires far more code and complexity than one that creates images based on a database of billions of other images.

The AI revolution increases the power of the individual.

I predict we will see an emergence of powerful sole proprietor or small team businesses as a result of AI tools.

Things that in the past would have required dozens of people can be outsourced to AI software. The operation of a business will be more lean and nimble. Things that used to require people and time can be done nearly instantly by one person. From logo design, website creation, content creation, writing copy, to marketing, all of the most tedious aspects of launching a new venture can be reduced to the click of a few buttons. That is powerful.

This is just the beginning.

The harnessing of electricity brought about the electrification of tools.

The internet brought about the connectivity of tools.

Now, AI is bringing efficiency and autonomy to our tools.