Are we prepared for the AI-driven future?

Artificial Intelligence, also known as AI, is technology that uses computers to mimic

human knowledge and learning. The concept of AI has been discussed for years, but the rollout of ChatGPT launched it into the mainstream. ChatGPT (Generative Pre-Trained Transformer) is an AI-powered chatbot launched last November by OpenAI.

Since then, competition for AI dominance has included some of the world’s biggest

tech giants like Amazon, Google, IBM and Microsoft, with each having offered their

own versions. And countless AI startups are looking to be involved in this new opportunity as well.

Development of AI has the ability make contributions to medicine and aid doctors. As

it grows, AI will affect businesses and industries across the economy. In a recent interview

on 60 Minutes, Google CEO Sundar Pichai suggests wide-ranging effects of AI.

“This is going to impact every product across every company,” he said, later describing

generative AI as a “super-powered assistant.”

AI will reshape how we do things. For instance, Google offers use its AI tool called Bard

to “boost your productivity, accelerate your ideas and fuel your curiosity.” It functions in

response to a prompt typed in with a question or a task. For example, create a recipe

or plan a road trip and Bard will produce a response. It will provide several versions, or

“drafts,” to choose from. And it will respond to follow-up questions or submitting the

same question again if the first responses was not helpful.

But it is difficult to know to what extent society is ready for these changes. These

developments are evolving at an alarming pace because AI could also disrupt certain

jobs such as writers, accountants, architects, and even software engineers.