“We have very little time to get people ready for it, businesses ready for it…”
— Kristalina Georgieva, head of the International Monetary Fund
A few days back, OpenAI unvelied GPT-4o, Google unvelied Gemini Pro 1.5. I’m at a loss of words for how fast GenAI is progressing. It feels like just yesterday we were marveling at how tools like ChatGPT made learning, coding, and even creative writing a breeze, and now we have GPT-4o and Gemini 1.5 with its expanded multi-modal capabilities.
AI and automation are no longer science fiction. They’re here, they’re powerful, and they’re transforming how we work, sometimes in unexpected ways. As someone who’s built AI-driven tools, I’ve seen firsthand the potential these technologies have to reshape industries. But I’ve also grappled with the ethical implications and the very real anxieties many people feel about job security. Take for example, this very post. Yes, this post has been written with assistance from GPT.
I’ve been reading “Sapiens” by Yuval Noah Harari, and it sparked an interesting tangent of thought with the next generations of AI. Historically, our interactions with computers have required us to adapt our language and thinking to fit their binary logic. We’ve had to break down complex ideas and instructions into strings of ones and zeros, essentially translating our human intentions into a language that machines can understand. It started with ChatGPT and getting a chat interface with the “computer”. The “computer” was able to understand us in our own language, thoughts. This is where the emergence of multimodal AI models is going to be even more significant. These models represent a shift away from the traditional paradigm of humans adapting to machines. Instead, they’re designed to adapt to us, to understand our language, our intentions, and our nuanced modes of communication with the way we chat, talk and behave.
“Our computers have trouble understanding how Homo sapiens talks, feels and dreams. So we are teaching Homo sapiens to talk, feel and dream in the language of numbers, which can be understood by computers.”
— Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
The Disruption We Can’t Ignore
We’ve already seen this in manufacturing, where robots have taken over assembly lines. And it’s happening in customer service, with chatbots handling basic inquiries. But the disruption won’t stop there. As AI gets smarter, it’ll tackle more complex tasks, from legal research to medical diagnoses.
These advanced models can process not just text, but also images, video, and audio, opening up new possibilities for automation and efficiency gains across industries. While this promises exciting innovation, it also raises valid concerns about job displacement.
Jobs heavily reliant on repetitive tasks, data entry, or predictable decision-making are particularly vulnerable. Multimodal AI can now analyze vast amounts of information across different formats, automating tasks that previously required human intervention. Think of insurance claims processing, where AI could sift through documents and images to assess damage. Or consider medical diagnostics, where AI could analyze scans and patient records to identify potential issues.
These examples are just the tip of the iceberg. As multimodal AI continues to advance, it’s likely to take on more complex tasks, from legal research and contract analysis to financial forecasting and even creative content generation. This could lead to significant workforce displacement in sectors where these skills were once considered uniquely human.
Opportunity in the Chaos
This sounds grim, but I’m not entirely pessimistic (I have some reservations, which I’ll come to in a second). In fact, I see immense opportunity. AI and automation have the potential to free us from drudgery, allowing us to focus on work that requires creativity, critical thinking, and human connection. Of course, AI isn’t just about replacing jobs. It’s also about creating new ones. As businesses adopt AI tools, they’ll need skilled workers to develop, manage, and maintain these systems. However, the transition won’t be seamless. We’ll need to invest in education and training to equip ourselves with the skills needed to thrive in an AI-powered economy. We’ll also need to have honest conversations about the ethical implications of AI and ensure that the benefits of this technology are distributed equitably (Skepticism Surrounding Current Ethics in AI)
Take the healthcare industry. AI-powered tools can analyze medical images, detect patterns in patient data, and even assist in surgeries. This doesn’t replace doctors and nurses; it empowers them to make better decisions and spend more time on patient care.
I’m particularly excited about the potential for AI to democratize expertise. Imagine a world where anyone, regardless of their background, can access sophisticated tools for learning, creating, and innovating. I have taken utmost advantage of ChatGPT and Gemini, to help me understand and learn new things, for me to be creative, for me to get new perspectives (although we’ll talk soon about how tools like ChatGPT and Gemini are biased as well). As AI becomes more mainstream, and more people have access to a faster, broader and more intuitive AI, I hope everyone is able to utilise it as productively as I have, if not more.
Blindsided by the job market earthquake
With the instability in the job market after COVID and the rise and fall of tech job during the period, it seems logical to beleive that “getting a job” is going to be exponentially more difficult, especially in a country like India, where there are more than a million engineers graduating every year. But, as we grapple with the tremors of this job market earthquake, our focus on the immediate economic consequences may be blinding us to the deeper, more insidious ways that technology is reshaping our world.
The emergence of other types of GenAI, like Sora has the ability to blur the lines between reality and simulation, challenging our understanding of what we can trust and what we cannot. These models can generate text, images, and videos so convincingly that it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish between the authentic and the artificial.
Deepfakes, for example, are AI-generated videos that can convincingly depict people saying or doing things they never actually did. This technology has already been used to create fake news, spread disinformation, and even manipulate political discourse. As multimodal AI becomes more sophisticated, the potential for such malicious use cases only grows.
But the challenge to trust goes beyond deepfakes. With AI capable of generating realistic images and text, how can we be sure that the information we consume online is genuine? How can we trust the news, the reviews, or even the personal messages we receive? This erosion of trust in digital content could have far-reaching consequences. It could fuel conspiracy theories, sow division, and make it harder to have informed debates about important issues. It could also undermine our faith in institutions and experts, as AI-generated content blurs the line between fact and fiction.
Preparing for the Future
So, how do we navigate this changing landscape? This is just my perspective, and with the everchanging future of AI, it’s difficult to predict with the future, but I feel we have some stable ground with education. We need to equip ourselves with the skills that are in demand in the AI age.
Technical skills: Coding, data analysis, machine learning—these are the building blocks of the AI-powered economy. Soft skills: Creativity, communication, collaboration—these are the skills that differentiate us from machines. Lifelong learning: The pace of change is accelerating, so we need to be adaptable and embrace continuous learning. But it’s not just about individual upskilling. We need to have honest conversations about the impact of AI and automation on our society. We need to create policies that support workers who are displaced by technology and ensure that the benefits of AI are shared broadly.
My Hope for the Future
I hope for a future where AI and automation complement human capabilities, not replace them. A future where we use these tools to solve global challenges, from climate change to disease. A future where work is meaningful, fulfilling, and accessible to everyone.
But it makes me wonder, will it be the this happy symbiotic relationship with AI, or an Orwellian reality where AI takes the role of Big Brother?