We grew up thinking that AI is a thing of the far future, never realising that it will be a massive part of our lives. We grew up thinking AI will come in the form of machines, not realising that it may arrive in the palms of our hands. We grew up thinking AI will impact labourers first and the creatives last, only for it to prove us wrong. In fact, some of us still haven't finished growing up, and AI is already here.
But could it be possible that we are over reacting? After all, AI has been around longer than you may think. Chat GPT, Bard, Midjourney, Dall-E and the likes are actually just an upgrade compared the the virtual assistants and other AI softwares we've been using such as Siri, Alexa and self-driving cars. It turns out, AI isn't the end of the world. Instead, it is a new beginning. One that you have to be a fool if you decide to miss out on. Let me explain...
What Is AI?
First and foremost, we must start from the basics: what is it?
AI stands for artificial intelligence which are computer systems (programs) that can imitate human intelligence and do things that normally humans can do. No, that doesn't mean that AI can do anything physical: so far it can only do cognitive things like analyse and interpret data, learn from patterns, make decisions, and solve problems.
To keep improving upon itself, AI learns from the data given to it and the reactions it receives to its responses so that it can improve upon itself without the need of a programer to continuously update it.
Now, I understand this sounds really scary, which is why it brings me to my next point nicely:
Should we be scared of AI?
Honestly, my answer is no, but everyone is different, so if you have a fear of AI already, here are 3 things I want you to remember with regards to why you shouldn't fear AI:
The whole purpose of AI is to assist us instead of replace us. The whole purpose of AI is not to replace: we are supposed to use AI to our benefit instead of succumb to AI before it has even done anything. It's because of this that Chat GPT is willing to assist you with your writing, but refuses to do it for you.
We have to be responsible to prevent negative consequences. If you ever act irresponsibly you could always result in negative consequences. With AI, those negative consequences may include misinformation of some sort (I mean, the models are still in the making) or privacy concerns (which would be a result of you sharing too much private information). In fact, such events will always occur even with face-to-face conversations with real people.
It provides new job opportunities. Yes, despite AI's purpose being to assist us, there will be some jobs that will be replaced by AI. However, this will open new doors as new jobs will be created through AI. For example, companies are looking for people who are great at communicating with AI (so if you are great at communication you can add communicating with AI to your CV).
How can AI increase Productivity?
The whole purpose of this blog is for us to become better, more productive people. And here is a tool that'll help us do just that!
AI can help us by freeing up more of our time to do the things that matter to us. This is through its ability to do the boring repetitive tasks that we have to get done, whether we like it or not.
Also, for those of us who find dealing with data difficult - and those of us who don't - AI helps us with analysing data and making decisions, reducing the time required to do so had we done it on our own or even with peers. It does this by identifying patterns, extracting insights, and making data driven predictions using a wider variety of information and a larger quantity of it.
Assisting humans is AI's purpose, and that's exactly what it's great at and exactly what will help you become a lot more productive. We already mentioned that it can do the boring repetitive tasks for you, but it can also get smaller tasks done as well as help you with any planning, scheduling, generating ideas and so on so you can focus on more important things.
This is good news for many people such as those working in marketing and those running e-commerce businesses because now AI-powered data analytical tools and AI chatbots can easily assist you.
Why use AI instead of doing it yourself?
AI will never get bored of doing the same things over and over. Getting AI to do your boring and often time-consuming tasks allows you to focus on what's more important and exciting.
It is fast and efficient compared to us, getting many things done correctly and at a much quicker pace so that we can move on to the next stage faster.
It is accurate and consistent because it doesn't have other factors that will impact the quality of its work such as fatigue, emotions or distractions, reducing the amount of errors that could be made and resulting in quality and reliability.
It doesn't get overwhelmed like humans so it is able to deal with large amounts of data and complexities to give you all the important information that you need - even the hidden opportunities shown by the data that you might have accidentally overlooked - leading to more accurate and informed outcomes.
Humans have limitations: some places and things are too risky and dangerous, which is why AI and robotics can fit in their place so that the limitations do not prove to be a setback. In another scenario, AI can create risk assessments and come up with possible solutions to minimise the possibility of an accident occurring.
Thanks to AI, content creators now have the tools and the ability to really upgrade their work, taking things to the next level and reaching new milestones. Project managers are also going to have an easier time because the likelihood of there being an error in their schedules is significantly smaller and resources are a lot more efficiently utilised. That's not to say that many more people in different industries can also benefit from the same softwares.
What AI is available for my use?
The answer to such question depends on what you need done:
Name | Owner/Founder | Category & Info |
|---|---|---|
Chat GPT | Open AI | Productivity: This text based AI helps you by answering your questions, creating language content, engaging with conversations and so on. |
Bard | Productivity: Because I am not AI writing this, it does the same as Chat GPT. | |
Speechify * | - | Productivity: This AI feature was created to read to you any text you like. It can also read in different voices and at different speeds. |
Grammarly ** | Grammarly Inc. | Productivity: Grammarly helps you write clearly, concisely, more confidently and grammatically accurately. |
Notion AI | Notion Labs Inc. | Productivity: Notion AI helps you do whatever you do on Notion: writing, planning, journalling etc. |
Otter.AI** | AISense | Productivity: This AI can transcribe all your audios, whether they are calls, podcasts, audio books, or live speech. |
Lex** | Lex AI LTD | Creativity: Lex helps you write without any distractions and whenever you get stuck or have a writer's block, it continues writing for you, in your style of writing too! |
Duolingo Max | Duolingo Inc | Education: Duolingo's recently partnered up with Open AI to use AI to create conversations where you can practice the language you are learning and find out why the mistake you are making is a mistake. (At the time of writing, it is only available to English speakers learning French and/or Spanish.) |
Q-Chat | Quizlet Inc. | Education: Quizlet has also partnered with Open AI to create the Q-Chat: an AI tutor to help you with your studies by giving you more information, testing you and so on. (At the time of writing, it is only available to those in the US and people over the age of 18.) |
Midjourney*** | Midjourney, Inc. | Creativity: This AI creates images that look so realistic. In fact, it has fooled the world with the image of the Pope in a trendy white puffer jacket. |
Dall-E*** | Open AI | Creativity: Dall-E is an AI model that creates images based on textual information that it is given. |
To wrap up
There's no doubt that AI is going to continue advancing, and for that reason, it is crucial that we get on top of the game and make the most of this opportunity so that when we finally do so, it isn't where AI is completely foreign and overwhelming. Yes, AI is still being developed and it often makes mistakes and assumptions, but that doesn't mean that it cannot be accurate, or a very helpful tool for that matter.
In the end, AI came to us faster and in a different form to how we might have expected, but it is here now, and there's no denying that it can be a lot of help.
That's all from me today. I'll see you in my next post. Keep embracing those opportunities! ;)
* I haven't tried Speechify before, however, I have tried similar extensions and have found them very helpful, that's why it's been mentioned.
** I have never tried any of these but have heard other people's responses and opinions of them, hence I've mentioned them.
*** I haven't tried these either but hope to do soon.
Note: This blog has been written with the assistance of AI for the first time. Information has been gathered using AI (Chat GPT), ideas have been generated by it (Chat GPT & Notion AI) and it has also been proof read by myself as normal and by Chat GPT for once. Do leave a review on how you found this post in the comments below please.
I love this blog!! I am thinking of getting into AI myself and this really helped :)