Over the years, tech blogs have been riddled with bold claims. You may have come across some of the following headlines and quotes if you’ve been in the tech world long enough:
· Google Glass and the power of technology to change the world
· Steve Jobs predicts the Segway would become as big as the PC. Jeff Bezos called it one of the most “anticipated product introductions.”
· Web 3.0: The Internet of the Future
Clearly, we should always be careful when we jump the gun on an exciting new idea or innovation, unless you have the Silicon Valley ethos where you can’t help being swept up by new ideas! And the hottest topic for the last few months is GenerativeAI or Large Language Models like ChatGPT. Before we dive deeper though, I’d like to go back in time to provide some context around why the world of information is ripe for disruption.
If we go back to when we were hunter gatherers, we were just starting to set ourselves apart from other species. There were many amazing things that helped us in that evolution and one major part of it was language. It was a true specialty of ours, our vocal cords allowed for enough variation to pass on crucial information that would often be the difference between life and death. Yuval Noah Harari in his book ‘Sapiens’ speaks of how our language is amazingly supple - with limited sounds we can produce infinite sentences and how crucial that’s been in the evolution of our civilizations.
This medium was our main form of communication for a very long time. It allowed us to learn from the findings of our tribe but also required us to be in the right place at the right time to get that information. Written communication also evolved over the millennia but remained a very time-consuming process. That’s why for the longest time, books remained only available to the upper classes as recreating written information required effort by hand. This changed when Gutenberg invented the printing press.
This was the next big evolution as it allowed information to be reproduced, quickly and cheaply and the knowledge of previous generations could be captured and distributed far and wide. It could be translated into different languages. It’s no coincidence that scientific evolution has been at a much higher clip in the past few centuries after the printing press was invented as the scientists of today could build on the knowledge of previous generations much more quickly.
The last major leap was going digital with computers and especially going global with the internet. It removed any physical boundaries and economic costs on knowledge. Information started to become almost free if you had the means to get online. It truly democratized information, communication, and knowledge. Over the years, as smartphones and internet plans have become even more accessible, we see how truly connected the world can be and how the new generation, Gen Z, can try their hand at anything and have a chance of making it. It’s why Khaby Lame, a Senegalese-born Italian who was laid off from his job as a machine operator became the most-followed TikToker in the world during the pandemic, just through one iconic pose.
That brings us to today, and why the latest fad has the potential to be the next big thing. While it’s still a work in progress, GenAI has the potential to condense the world’s knowledge to help solve problems in truly mind-blowing ways. Imagine your own, personal assistant that knows the whole internet. You might think the internet has been around for decades now and Google allows you to access all sorts of knowledge. The difference is, the internet has been like a massive library and Google with other search engines is a pretty good librarian. But you must still put in the time to do the research and you still need to read the right article or at least find the best cliff notes for you to get the gist.
Now (or soon enough), you can have an information genie that knows you and can do your knowledge heavy lifting for you. With some more advancements to come, it’s quite feasible that you can have a personalized version of the best generative model out there that knows exactly how you learn and what topics you care about. It can teach you new concepts, help you write fiction, edit your photos or videos, record your own conversation with a celebrity, and just unleash your creativity. The possibilities are endless!
Much like any new technology, there are some pitfalls and warnings to keep in mind. Just like the internet or social media can amplify some of the worst parts of society, these models can also amplify many such biases. It can potentially create an echo chamber of one, with you and your AI, as it learns exactly what you want to know and shares that information. It will also make true ownership and intellectual property discussions challenging as the model is learning from the input of others - so who owns the output, the one providing the prompt or the many that helped with the input and the feedback during the model’s learning phase? Finally, there are very real concerns of bad actors using these technologies to dupe or threaten the masses by leveraging quick but realistic fake media.
As I mentioned right at the start, there are many false starts that technology trends go through, and Generative AI can be one of them. But I remain cautiously optimistic of what a truly fantastic evolution is about to unfold.
P.S. I don’t use Generative AI for my writing. Yet. 😊
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