Note: I’m teaming up with Justin Dossetti and Stella Beauchamp on this post. We talk about artificial intelligence. Justin is a creative thinker and far more adept with technology than me. Stella is growing her Thai massage practice, and expanding her audience for discussions of healthy lifestyles. We are having fun, and, hopefully, creating stuff, new ideas, and business opportunities. Artificial intelligence is part of that effort.
Ronald Reagan had a magical way of turning complex and contentious issues into friendly asides. In one of his debates he famously identified the nine most terrifying words in the English language: “I’m from the government, I’m here to help you.” We can imagine that there are millions who feel the same about artificial intelligence, or AI.
AI became a thing in November of last year. There have been stories of its various types (generative AI, large language models), its possibilities, and its dangers. Elon Musk is involved, and so are government regulators. The nerds, of course, are out in full force, and having a field day.
But for most of us, AI is an enigma. Is it one of those things we hear about, like flying taxis, that seem to simply be fantasy, or might it have a real impact on our lives? Remember that computers were being talked about in 1980 as futuristic, but five years later they were showing up in most businesses, and then homes. Remember too that a telephone that was basically a computer that you could carry in your pocket led to lines of buyers around the block when the first iPhone was released in 2007.
How close to using AI are we? As long as it is just something we read about, whether in a negative or positive light, we’ll probably go about our daily activities without paying much attention. If we can use it in our personal lives, though, now that’s a different matter entirely.
Justin, Stella, and I have been discussing our respective business ideas for a while now. Each of us has our own interests, and a common feature of our conversations is the effort to identify just what those interests are. What, indeed, are our business plans? How might we focus our time and energy into achieving our goals?
If you’ve ever tried to develop a business plan, you know that organizing the various components that go into a successful business is essential. This may sound simple, but it can involve researching other business plans, reading generally about successful business people, and drafting, rewriting, and drafting some more. This seemed to Justin like an opportunity to test just how close AI is to helping us in our daily lives.
Stella has a website (Seedthechanges.com) that has, to date, focused on her Thai massage business. We’ve talked about her desire to expand the discussion to healthy life choices, natural herbs, and find new audiences. Justin used AI to draft a business plan for her. He referred ChatGPT to Stella’s website.
The result was astounding: immediate, insightful, and very productive. What would have taken hours, maybe days, was delivered almost immediately. For example, ChatGPT “got it” about a desire to expand the audience:
Emphasize Holistic Health: Stella should highlight her comprehensive approach to wellness, which includes massage therapy, herbalism, and living in harmony with nature. This differentiates her brand as not just a service, but a lifestyle choice.
Focus on Empowerment and Education: Stella could position her brand around the empowerment of her audience through education, offering them the knowledge and tools to take charge of their own health and well-being.
This isn’t the final step, of course. Stella will still have to review the suggested plan and fine-tune it, but ChatGPT achieved a lot, and it was easily available to someone who wasn’t paying for it. This is remarkable.
Some years back my friend Andrew convinced me to attend a discussion of a book release in San Francisco. It turned out the author’s subject was algorithms. It was a new concept to me at the time, but I’ve seen algorithms in operation countless times since that day. They are closely related to artificial intelligence.
As an example, Netflix has a library of over 3,600 movies, and 1,800 television shows. You won’t see most of these offered, of course–instead you’ll see a listing of 50 or so shows that reflect what you have watched on Netflix in the past. Classic algorithm: providing recommendations based on your historical activity.
It occurred to me one day that I might want to look through the Netflix library without the help of an algorithm. I typed in a couple of letters in the search box, only to find myself inundated with movie and show titles of utterly no interest to me. I concluded that I am interested in something like 5% of the Netflix library. Sorting through title after title without help would be tedious indeed. Thank goodness for the algorithm!
Algorithms can be applied to your shopping (you’ll suddenly see online ads for a product you searched for yesterday), and to your politics (site recommendations that reflect, for example, your recent contribution to a political candidate). Kyle Chayka, in his recently published book Filterworld, suggests that algorithms can influence our tastes in music, or in literature, by limiting our exposure to new artists.
I encounter algorithms every day. As with Netflix and its suggestions for my viewing enjoyment, I welcome the work done by Apple Music’s tool, providing playlists based on recent tunes by my favorite artists. I try to remember, though, that Apple is limiting my choices via its algorithm. I occasionally find an artist that I’ve never listened to (Krishna Das, for example), and ask for a playlist based on the new input. I like to think I’m in charge.
There were those who saw the automobile as a novelty when introduced in the late 1890’s, seemingly a fad that would soon disappear from the scene. The same goes for the computer, or the cell phone, or artificial intelligence. I’ll bet on technology, which is why I now have a ChatGPT account. This is voluntary on my part, but the use of artificial intelligence tools, and at least some working knowledge of the technology, will certainly be requirements for young folks in both work and play in the future.
Much concern has been expressed about AI in schools, and the prospect that students can use AI to complete assignments. That may be true, but it seems to me that schools should be teaching AI, and it will, as a practical matter, be impossible to hide it from them. Beyond that, much of the output of AI is complex, so it takes time and attention to review and edit to ensure a meaningful result.
Some of the AI backers predict that it will be the end of work as we know it. Hands free driving. Automated households. Books that write themselves. In such a world it won’t make any difference whether you know anything or not. Some skeptics warn AI could be the end of humanity. Hmmmm…maybe they’re the same thing.
This is worth talking about. We’ll be back!