When watershed moments happen throughout history, we often don’t notice them until later. We tend to keep doing “business as usual” and then slowly realize what has grown around us (like the internet, mobile phones, social media, etc).
This time is a little different. AI is moving so quickly that we can see that we’re in the midst of this huge shift, and we still have time to affect what’s going to happen. In listening to a recent episode of Jay Acunzo’s podcast, his guest Scott Stratten laid it out very plainly regarding AI:
“This is a watershed moment. We don’t get to know when we’re in them usually. We are in it right now.”
It reminded me a bit of Andy Bernard in The Office when he pined for “the good old days”:
Going back to Stratten, he believes that since we know we’re in the midst of this moment, it’s up to us to make sure things go in the right direction. Continuing from the podcast:
“We are in it right now. If we don’t put the proper guard rails in place, it is going to be an exponentially bigger issue soon. So when I see people on a small scale saying, what’s the harm?
I’m trying to sound alarm bells, and I’m centering that around everybody, not me or my own function or LinkedIn. I’m centering it on copyright, on environmental issues, there’s 17 different issues we can go on here, and I just want you to look at any of them outside of the function you’re using it for.”
There are many ways to make great use of AI in your daily life, but it’s worth considering the bigger implications and to do your part to help keep things going in the right direction. There’s no easy answers, but as Stratten says, simply “look at any of them outside of the function you’re using it for” and that perspective is a great first step.
It was a fantastic episode, and I encourage you to give it a listen.
