AI Is Here. Are We Doomed?
Sunset Obsession Newsletter March 2023
Hey folks,
If you’ve been following the news lately, you might have noticed that AI is all the rage currently. But as exciting as this new technology is, the pace of innovation and development in that area quite frankly feels… scary.
With the emergence of tools like GPT-4, Midjourney, and CopilotX, it’s easy to feel concerned. I definitely am. After all, everything that I love and do daily – writing, photography, and even software development – is at the forefront of activities soon to be largely taken over by AI.
It doesn’t help that OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has recently revealed that as much as 80% of all jobs could be affected in the near future. For better or worse, the AI is here and it’s here to stay. So… is that the end for human creativity?
Fear Not
The short answer to that is no. Sure, it will disrupt whole industries and change a lot of things but if human history can teach us anything in this regard, it’s these two lessons: “you can’t stop progress” and “we’re all still here”.
I do like the analogy that Gary Vee makes about tractors. Back in the day, most folks were in agriculture, happily plowing away in their fields. And then, along came the tractor making everyone go “shoot, this will take away our jobs, we’re doomed”.
Sure enough, that’s exactly what happened. But that wasn’t the end of humanity. New jobs appeared and as a society, we are better off because of it. So while fear might feel like a natural reaction to the emergence of AI, it really is counterproductive.
Instead of being afraid, we should focus on how to use AI to our advantage. Because it does open up a lot of possibilities and it’s up to us to figure out how to best use those.
If You Can’t Fight It, Join It
This brings us neatly to the second point. We can’t stop progress and neither can we undo it. The genie is out of the bottle. What we can do, however, is learn how to use it to boost our productivity.
In the end, AI is just another tool. Like it or not, many people out there are using it already and more will join every day. If you stick to the old ways, you’ll quickly become obsolete. So don’t fight the inevitable.
Instead, we should try to embrace everything this exciting technology enables us to do and try to incorporate it into your daily routine. If you’re a blogger, use AI to speed up your writing. If you’re a programmer, use it to write better code, faster. If you’re a designer, get new concepts and ideas out of it.
And if you’re a photographer… well, I’m not sure I have any good advice for you. Except maybe…
Keep Learning
Some say that with the emergence of AI, we’re transitioning from the age of information into the age of knowledge. Whether true or not, I’m sure that knowledge and experience will remain extremely valuable assets.
And so the final advice that actually ties up everything said up to this point is simply to keep learning. Pick up a new skill or enhance your knowledge in one of the areas you’re already pretty good in. In other words, make yourself hard to replace.
Luckily, we live in an era when knowledge and information are cheap and readily available. And perhaps somewhat ironically, AI is the latest addition to a cohort of tools that are out there to help us get it.
Cheers,
-Alex
Latest from Sunset Obsession
It’s been a little quiet in the blog lately as I’ve been dealing with other important stuff but I did start my new series on the Dolomites, and you are welcome to read the first article in it.
Sunset Obsession Recommends
Humans: A Brief History of How We F*cked It All Up – a book by Tom Phillips that I’ve been enjoying lately and find quite fitting to today’s topic.
AI might be humanity’s greatest breakthrough or its major screw-up. We’ll have to wait and see. But if it turns out to be the latter, at least it won’t be the first one. “Humans” is a book full of accounts of various bad decisions people have taken throughout history.
It honestly would’ve been somewhat sad if it wasn’t so brilliantly written. Smart, funny, and full of fascinating stories, it’s a pleasure to read. I’m glad it caught my eye and can happily recommend it to anyone looking for something both entertaining and educational.
Sunset Obsession Image of the Month
I thought it would be appropriate to include an AI-generated image to this newsletter. So below is an image generated by Midjourney at the prompt of “a photo of a beautiful autumn sunset in the Italian Dolomites --ar 2:1 --v 5“.
Honestly, that’s not bad at all. Obviously, we’re not quite there yet, but we’re getting very close.
Quote of the Week
“Fear not the embrace of technology, for within its grasp lies the power to uplift our minds, strengthen our spirit, and expand the horizons of human potential.”
― GPT-4, when asked to generate a quote about technology