Is the AI hype justified?

Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you’ve probably heard of AI along with one of two sentences:

1. It’s going to change the world

2. It’s going to kill us all

It’s entirely possible both of those true, though naturally I’d prefer to die of old age having lived a happy live rather than AI becoming self-aware and deciding we’re not good enough to live.

But in any case, it’s here. And it’s likely here to stay.

Will it continue is the big question?

We’ve seen many “lifechanging technologies” appear since the internet..

• 3D TV (now just an annoying gimmick)

• VR & AR (Google Glass, anyone?)

• Self-driving cars (has anyone you know ever been in one?)

• Cryptocurrency (still going but most are dead)

• Blockchain (didn’t actually revolutionise anything)

• Metaverse (a flop so far)

3D TV seemed a good idea but it hurts your head.

VR is also cool but would I watch a concert in VR? No thanks.

Cryptocurrency had a lot of hype but so far limited in its impact.

The blockchain didn’t disrupt every single industry on the planet.

And nobody is talking about the Metaverse anymore.

My point is, these fads come and go.

Ah!

How could I forget 3D printing?

I remember a friend in New York working for a 3D printing company in an incubator, and all of these companies were getting mad funding when even he knew it wasn’t possible to do what the investors wanted to do.

Investors were so in love with the idea that the housing crisis all over the world would be solved with 3D printed houses that they handed over bucket loads of cash.

Anyway, here’s my view on AI.

It’s going to increase productivity by an insane amount and that productivity is gradually going to seep into sectors of the economy and boost corporate profits.

AI is now so good that instead of paying thousands for photographers and product shoots, you can just give AI the product and prompt it to create the desired effects you want.

It’ll write copy for you.

It’ll design a business strategy for you.

It’ll build websites for you.

And for the Luddites that say it will kill jobs?

Yes, it will.

But new jobs will shoot up in their place.

Here’s a quick list of jobs that didn’t exist 20 years ago.

1. Social media manager

2. Podcast producer

3. Mobile app developer

4. Virtual assistant

5. SEO analyst

6. Cloud architect..

Here’s one that AI has created already: prompt engineer.

With AI, anything natural intelligence can do, AI can do it better.

Or at least it can replace something to a high standard.

AI has been around for a while but it’s only now that it’s come to the mainstream.

Maybe you’ve used it yourself, or heard about a mate who got ChatGPT to write covering letters for jobs.

But the power of ChatGPT relies on the prompts. Basically, if you have rubbish prompts, you’ll get rubbish results.

However, AI’s advances will only get faster and faster and it’ll permeate society much faster than the internet did.

And VCs love it too. In fairness, they loved everything in 2020 and 2021, but since last year private markets have been drying up.

Even Masayoshi Sun says the giant is ready to shift to “offense mode”.

Aa lot of AI businesses will end up being value destroyers for shareholders and end up getting acquired by the big players.

But AI in general will fuel the next bull market as it unleashes a spurt of productivity.

When will that happen?