By Sheila Lothian, Content Strategist & Editorial Director
For this issue, our editorial director Sheila Lothian picked up the virtual audience mic to get the Mavens’ thoughts on our current technological moment and what today’s advances portend for tomorrow’s world.
Possibilities that excite
“For a number of years, well-meaning compliance policies will get in the way, but eventually AI will be able to safely and confidentially access large amounts of medical information and make an extraordinary impact on human health and well-being. At every doctor’s appointment you have, your symptoms, vital signs, any blood work and data from wearables will be uploaded to a common database allowing AI to do pattern recognition and early identification of problems.”
– Brian Klingbeil, Chief Strategy Officer, Ensono
“The promise of AI personal assistants coming true. Many of us agree that assistants at work help us all accomplish more, provide higher quality outputs and organize our businesses. The promise of Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant and Cortana was that we were getting an assistant for our personal lives. While we’ve seen routines and transactional tasks like adding calendar invites, creating reminders or playing music get easier, the promise has largely remained in the future. With generative AI, we are much closer to the 2013 movie “Her” than we ever were. Although falling in love with my AI assistant is not in the cards, I am SO EXCITED for the AI future!”
– Sean Mahoney, Vice President, Ensono Digital
“The potential to increase the velocity of new discoveries, increase production and so free up people’s time to explore personal projects, be that research, art or social.”
– Claire Connor, Senior Mainframe Solution Architect, Ensono
Potential for concern
“Generative AI is a dangerous step towards anonymous thought. Attribution of source data, authors and content origination are washed away, calling into question the legitimacy of the content.”
– Robert Christiansen,Founder & CEO, Motive for Life and The Durable Innovator
“Self-driving vehicles have been a hot topic because millions of people in the U.S.—as much as nine percent of the population in some regions1—make all or some of their income based on driving. If self-driving vehicles were proven to be safe and governments allowed this technology to be leveraged, it would represent the biggest job displacement in the history of the U.S. But generative AI, I believe, would have a far greater impact on our job market than self-driving vehicles ever would.
“Currently there are 2.78 million administrative professionals, 6.68 million finance and insurance professionals, roughly 3 million legal professionals, and many other industries that would see significant productivity boosts out of 132 million total full-time employees. My estimate is that 30–40 percent of people could see their jobs replaced by these two
converging forces in the long term. Critics would argue that computers were supposed to do the same thing, but that people created new jobs related to computers that helped bolster our job market. While accurate, the computers that have been around in the last 50 years have required supervision, development and maintenance. Generative AI can be configured to self-heal, self-train, learn and contribute in new ways constantly.”
– Sean Mahoney
“It has the ability to increase the social divide, concentrating power and wealth in an ever-shrinking group of individuals.”
– Claire Connor
“My main concern is the most common one—many jobs will be automated away, affecting many people. Throughout human history this has always happened—advancements in technology have eliminated jobs, everything from telephone operators to factory workers, and even film projectionists and bowling alley pinsetters. History has shown us that technology always creates new jobs as well, but the temporary disruption is painful for some and with AI it might be the most painful transition yet.”
– Brian Klingbeil
1“Driverless cars will kill the most jobs in select U.S. states,” Mark Fahey, CNBC, September 2016.
Predictions for the future
“The convergence of quantum computing and artificial intelligence will dramatically reshape our world—potentially leading to 100 percent unemployment by 2060, redefining the very essence of what it means to contribute to society as we start raising children not for purpose, but for passion.”
– Whurley, Founder and CEO, Strangeworks
“There have been several trials of a four-day work week around the world. The AI revolution will be the thing that pushes that into a universal reality. With AI supplementing so many of our everyday tasks, we’ll all be able to get more done in less time.”
– Gordon McKenna, Chief Technology Officer, Ensono
“AI is and will continue to redefine the ‘superwoman’: It will be the working mom’s sidekick, helping to optimize calendars and task assignments, manage email and, most importantly, prioritize personal commitments alongside professional responsibilities. This will hopefully (and finally) give us working moms more control over time and achieving the elusive work/life balance.”
– Violette Sieczka, Managing Editor, The Maven Report
“We take for granted so much technology that makes our lives better. For example, the idea of watching a movie on your phone or getting real-time, traffic-avoidance instructions was incredibly far-fetched 20 years ago and is now very normal. I predict that the unpredictable will happen. There will be a use case for AI that we have not even conceived of yet that will have a very positive impact on our day-to-day lives —and then will immediately be taken for granted.”
“The most-talked-about advertisement at the 2024 Superbowl will be written and recorded by generative AI, will include people interacting and look real. We’re already seeing images and videos being created by DALL-E that defy our senses, showing images that look real but never existed in reality. This year will bring new capabilities in generating people and scenes in video form that will also make us all do a double-take and say ‘Wow, no human was involved in creating this advertisement.’”
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