BJ Murphy: The AI-conomy disruption you're not ready for
Artificial intelligence is not coming. It is here, and most of us are still thinking too small about what that means or are so afraid of its potentially negative consequences that we fail to move at all.
We see AI-generated flyers, fake headshots and funny videos. Meanwhile, this technology is beginning to reshape how businesses operate and how students learn, and eventually, how wars may be fought or how our laws define responsibility. The greater risk may not be that everyone uses AI badly. It may be that too many people fail to understand it until decisions are being made for them.
Every industry is about to be disrupted
In a relatively short time, I have used AI to build a few dozen automated workflows, migrate websites by connecting systems and managing prompts, create lead-generation sales systems and reduce expenses in some areas while increasing what I spend on AI itself.
Now look beyond the office. People are already finding practical uses for AI and automation, including lawn mowers powered by solar energy and contained within their yard’s GIS coordinates. Software is becoming automation, automation is becoming machines acting in the physical world, and every industry will have to adjust. Imagine an AI-powered robot used for home defense. I'm telling you, it's coming.
Learn it without surrendering your compass
My advice is not to become an AI expert overnight, and certainly not to ignore it. Like ignoring debt, it only grows and can consume you. Take baby steps. Make the flyer. Ask AI to organize a project. Build a workflow like, "Search the headlines every morning before I wake up on XXX subject and give me the top 10 I should read." Then ask what you learned and where else the technology could practically improve your work or life.
On The Joe Rogan Experience, Elon Musk described choosing between being a spectator and a participant, explaining that participation lets him influence AI's direction. Obviously, Musk has the wealth and access to participate at levels I cannot. I'm not letting that stop me or our businesses from participating at the level we can.
We're adapting as fast as humanly possible because I don't intend for us to get left behind by the market, new products or new services.
Our laws and institutions are not ready
Back to the homeowner’s self-defense AI robot. North Carolina law speaks in terms of what a person reasonably believes when using defensive force. What happens when software identifies the threat and the machine acts?
That is not a doomsday prediction. It is a warning to prepare. Our laws, schools and institutions will have to catch up. We need students who can question, verify, reason and adapt, not simply generate or simply accept an answer.
My goal here is not to fear-monger AI. I'm simply trying to implore you and our leaders to learn enough to use it, question it and recognize when someone else may use your ignorance against you.
We still need the skills to understand and redirect. And we need our lawmakers to begin those discussions now, not only about what is coming, but about what may already be here.
