By now, it’s probably clear to most people that artificial intelligence is going to have a fairly large impact on our lives.
A few years ago, you might have been forgiven for wondering whether it was just another fad. But recent advances – such as the emergence of generative AI tools like ChatGPT – have left most of us in no doubt that we’re witnessing the dawn of a new era. An era that’s likely to see our lives change just as dramatically as we saw with the arrival of personal computers, the internet, or smartphones.
Perhaps even more so – Google CEO Sundar Pichai famously stated back in 2016 that it would have a bigger impact than fire or electricity.
But let’s forget the hyperbole (if it is hyperbole) for a second and focus on the here and now. What are the most important things we need to understand about this revolutionary technology today? Interesting (or scary) though it may be to wonder whether we will be chauffeured in sentient flying taxis – or even falling in love and marrying robots – in decades to come, there are some pressing concerns that need to be addressed right now. So, here are the facts I believe that everyone needs to get to grips with in 2023 in order to navigate these early days of the AI era.
AI isn’t the future – it’s now
Yes, it’s early days, and the AI tools and apps that are blowing our minds today are going to look amusingly quaint compared to what we’re playing with in five years’ time. But make no mistake, AI is here today, embedded everywhere in the world around us. You might be one of the many who don’t even realize it – a survey a few years back found that while 84% of us were using AI on a daily basis, only 34% knew we were doing it. But when you’re shopping online, searching the internet, ordering food deliveries, hailing a ride, navigating from place to place, or enjoying music and movies, you’re probably using AI.