April 18, 2023

#43: AWS Gets Into the Generative AI Game, AutoGPT and Autonomous AI Agents, and How AI Could Impact Millions of Knowledge Workers Sooner Than You Think

1 hour 11 minutes

AI-driven automation is quickly becoming a fundamental part of businesses’ tech stacks, but there are also potential dangers associated with this technology.

Paul pointed out that AI-driven automation is quickly becoming a fundamental part of businesses’ tech stacks. "I feel like the large language model is going to be as fundamental to the tech stack as a CRM has been for the last ten to 15 years," he said.

Mike added that businesses should look for models that allow them to customize the model with their own data and integrate it into their own applications. "You want to tune these models on that data, whether it’s for internal external use cases, and you want to be highly confident in the privacy and security of that data and how these models work within your organization," he said.

AI technology is rapidly advancing and is capable of performing complex tasks autonomously with minimal human intervention.

Paul discussed AI technology and the need for safety and alignment when building these applications. "We're not going back, we're not going to just stop trying to build these action transformers," he said.

"But I really hope that the people that are building these things understand the potential ramifications of what they're building and do everything in their power internally and with their peers who are working on similar technology, to do everything possible, to do it in a responsible way, and to do it with safety, first and foremost."

Mike then discussed the impact of AI on labor, noting that AI tech has accelerated the ability of AI to perform knowledge work, including strategic and creative work.

AI is advancing quickly and is likely to significantly reduce the time it takes to complete knowledge tasks such as writing, design, coding, and planning.

Paul noted that AI-driven disruption of knowledge work is a very real possibility and that organizations and leaders should plan for significant job loss. He also pointed to a survey of almost 800 people, which showed that lack of education and training was the top obstacle to adoption.

"It’s coming; it’s going to intelligently automate large portions of your work," Roetzer said.

"Based on my own experiences in research as well as the context of dozens of conversations, it is reasonable to assume the time to complete most knowledge tasks such as writing, design, coding, planning, et cetera, can be reduced on average 20% to 30% at minimum with current generative AI technology. And the tech is getting faster and smarter at a compounding rate, so these percentages are only going to rise what it's capable of doing."

AI technology has the potential to create a wide range of new jobs and career paths.

Paul and Mike discussed the potential impacts of AI technology on the job market and the economy. Mike noted that "this is not just wild speculation," and Paul agreed, saying "I do believe it's going to create lots of new jobs and career paths we can't imagine."

He went on to explain that "the flaws and limitations of generative AI are greater than are being discussed in the media and will prevent mass disruption in the near term."

Paul also highlighted the importance of humans in the AI process, noting that "the dependence of the machine on the human to make sure it's accurate and safe and aligned with human values" is essential. He suggested creating "generative AI policies that explicitly say how you're using language tools, image generation tools, video generation tools, etc."

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By Paul Roetzer and Mike Kaput

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