With so much hype around AI, it is easy to dismiss it as just another technology fad. It’s not always clear how these advancements will really impact our daily lives. So, it is also easy to underestimate how important AI will be for everyone in society and just how quickly it is advancing. Why all the hype about AI? The bottom line is that it is going to change every aspect of our daily lives from the way business is done to the way we all live. It is going to happen quickly.
There is no better example than to compare the evolution of images. When OpenAI’s Dall-E first came out in 2021 it was able to generally produce a picture from a text description, known as prompts. Fast forward to April 2022 and the release of Dall-E 2 showed a material advancement in the technology’s ability to generate higher quality and more detailed images. It brought about questions of what it means in the future when AI can generate video. Well, in only 18 months since the release of Dall-E 2 and ChatGPT, it’s already being answered.
In February 2024, Open AI released Sora for a limited trial within certain industries. Sora generates videos that are up to a minute long in a matter of seconds based on simple text prompts. Imagine being a business that can now generate your advertisements for TV in a matter of minutes. Now imagine being the advertising agency or film company. One of many industries about to become modern versions of the blacksmith. That is a real-life example of the pace of change.
It’s why Hollywood writers and actors were on strike back in 2023. They know where this is going. Imagine being Pixar spending and generating millions on creating state-of-the-art animation only for AI technology to replace you overnight. Just as anyone can produce content today, in the very near future the type of content will expand to include the ability to create ads, animation, TV series or movies in a matter of minutes.
In the short to medium term, many of these organisations will actually benefit by continuing to do the work they do and thrive as they harness AI internally and produce more content more quickly and more cheaply than ever before. But that is phase 1. Phase 2 is when it really starts to disrupt industries. Their customers start to work out that there are now businesses that provide them with access to create their ads online and suddenly the entire industry moves towards almost zero cost and is then ultimately a software service platform.
Talking to senior leaders in the legal industry and they will tell you they are seeing the impact of AI firsthand in exactly this way. Right now, they can have lawyers deploy AI to complete work in an hour which would take an associate lawyer 2 days. It means lower costs and higher margins – for now. But eventually, it flows through the business model, and it won’t be long before AI-enabled solutions are offering far cheaper but no less effective legal solutions.
This is the same for every type of business where people are doing the work. In the future, it will be AI doing more and more of it. Where it’s physical work, it will be at the intersection of AI, automation and robotics. For example, Amazon’s robot workforce is forecast to surpass its human employee count (currently around 1.6 million) by 2030. There isn’t an industry or a job that will be left untouched by AI. Highly trained professionals such as surgeons, lawyers, or accountants? You will be replaced by AI and robots. Construction and labour? You will also be replaced by AI and robots.
A more futuristic example of AI disrupting an industry is the concept of fully autonomous, AI-driven construction. Imagine a construction site where robots equipped with AI algorithms handle everything from excavation to assembly, with minimal human involvement. These robots would be able to analyse blueprints, navigate the construction site, and use technology to build structures with precision and efficiency. They could work around the clock, speeding up construction timelines and reducing labour costs. We can disagree over the timeline, but I can guarantee that this is coming soon enough.
I’ve heard people doubt that this level of computer-driven autonomy can happen because they can’t comprehend a world with so many jobs disappearing. But that’s the wrong way to think about it. What people will do for work or entertainment will take care of itself. It is a completely separate question and has little to no bearing on the fact that many of these jobs will disappear as this technology takes hold. It might be confronting but it certainly won’t stop the progress.
It is quite possible that AI and automation will result in many of the things that people have previously worked all their lives for will be readily available at an extremely low cost. There is the prospect of abundance as technology can easily produce what is needed for everyone. This means an exponential rise in the standard of living and the potential to eradicate poverty. It will happen in stages, but it is happening already. AI matters because it is going to change the lives of every person in the world in the years ahead.
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