The AI Revolution has arrived!
The AI Revolution is now upon us! With the rapid advancement in technology, this phenomenon is something to be expected. But, the constant evolution in the digital world is — still taking everyone by surprise!
We are now facing a new wave of technology, centered around AI but including synthetic biology, quantum computing, and abundant new sources of energy. In many respects it will repeat this pattern. Yet it will also depart from it in crucial ways only now becoming clear.
In a Sept. 2023 article for TIME, Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder and CEO of Inflection AI, wrote:
“Amidst all the hype, the hope, the fear, I think the fundamentals are getting lost; the unique characteristics of this wave are getting missed in the noise. Understanding them, seeing what, exactly, is changing, is critical to understanding the future.”
“AI is the most underappreciated aspect of the technological revolution now underway. This is different from previous waves of technology because of how it unleashes new powers and transforms existing power,” he added.
Suleyman said: “While all waves of technology create altered power structures in their wake, none have seen the raw proliferation of power like the one on its way. Previous era’s most powerful technologies were generally reserved to a small capital rich elite or national governments.”
Suleyman further noted that if the last great tech wave—computers and the internet—was about broadcasting information, this new wave is all about doing. We are facing a step change in what’s possible for individual people to do, and at a previously unthinkable pace. AI is becoming more powerful and radically cheaper by the month—what was computationally impossible, or would cost tens of millions of dollars a few years ago, is now widespread.
“These AIs will organize a retirement party and manage your diary, they will develop and execute business strategies, whilst designing new drugs to fight cancer. They will plan and run hospitals or invasions just as much as they will answer your email,” he revealed.
Suleyman further implied: “And it’s coming faster than we can adequately prepare for. This is an age when the most powerful technologies are open-sourced in months, when millions have access to the cutting edge, and that cutting edge is the greatest force amplifier ever seen. This new era will create giant new businesses, empower a long tail of actors—good and bad—supercharge the power of some states, erode that of others.”
Bill Gates thinks AI is “revolutionary”
Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates published in December 2023 a six-page blog post outlining his predictions for the future impact of the AI technology on healthcare, education, and the workforce.
Gates said in his blog post that 2023 marked the first time he’d used AI at work or for “serious reasons.” Compared to previous years, the world has a better sense of what jobs AI will be able to do itself and “which ones it will serve as a copilot for,” Gates said.
Numerous studies conducted this year have tried to pinpoint which skills and sectors would be the most impacted by advanced AI. There’s already evidence that using the tech as a copilot at work can help employees get ahead. Several companies have developed internal AI tools to boost employees while others encourage workers to use publically available technology.
Gates also laid out several medical questions that scientists around the world were trying to use AI to answer. He said the work was ambitious and in an early stage of development. Gates believed that most of it wouldn’t emerge in the next year and some may not leave the lab at all. He said the work was setting the stage “for a massive technology boom later this decade.”
“We are just at the beginning of this transition right now. This is an exciting and confusing time, and if you haven’t figured out how to make the best use of AI yet, you are not alone,” Gates said.
“Think back to the beginning of the internet. At first, you probably didn’t know many people who were using it, but it became more common over time. Most people had email addresses, bought things online, and used search engines to answer their questions,” he added.
References: How the AI Revolution Will Reshape the World | TIME
Bill Gates’s Predictions: AI Will Radically Transform Jobs, Health, Education (businessinsider.com)
