Are We Going To Collaborate With AI? And How?
Dharmesh and his call with Sam Altman
John Werner
What are we going to do with AI? It's a common question, sure, but it's also phrased ambiguously. We'll get back to that in a moment.
Within the spiraling complexity of the tech industry, people have many questions. There's a good deal of uncertainty about exactly how our grand experiment with AI will work. Part of that involves the idea that unlike with past technology transformations, a portion of it will simply be out of our control.
It goes back to the idea, espoused by people like my friend Jeremy Werthheimer, that we are not exactly 'engineering' LLMs, but 'discovering' them and their capabilities.
In other words, how do you 'use' something that can also imitate cognition? Are you using it, or is it using you?
And then there's the big question of human sentiment. How do people feel about AI? And is that too general of a question?
Tomorrow's Teams
Dharmesh Shah
One thing you get in this piece from Harvard is that there's more than one way to view AI as a user. Taking the example of students in a younger age group, a cited study found half of them using generative AI, with most common uses being search and brainstorming.
The survey, which reached 1500 teens, showed how some people use it to cheat, and others use it in more positive ways.
'Of the teens surveyed, many admitted to using AI to cheat on assignments, homework, or tests,' writes Ryan Nagelhout. 'But while academic integrity remains a concern for both adults and teens alike, many study participants highlighted positive academic experiences they've had with generative AI. AI was called 'the modern approach to learning,' while other teens surveyed pointed out that 'not all kids use it to cheat in school.'
So with that in mind, there's a big difference between viewing this technology in a positive way, and viewing it negatively.
Going back to the idea of surveys and ambiguity, I recently saw this talk from Dharmesh Shah of HubSpot, where he asked a good number of people: 'How will we compete with AI?'
What LLMs are like
John Werner
As he pointed out, this has two meanings – competing against AI, and competing using AI. I have to admit that when I see the question, I think of it as competing against AI, because of the technology's sometimes confounding powers to do what we do, better. But Shah revealed that in his survey, 66% of respondents saw it the other way, in collaboration, with 34% taking in the question the way that I did.
Referencing the year '2 B.C.' or 'before ChatGPT,' he talks about answering questions such as: how does AI work, and where are we going with it?
Quoting figures like Geoff Hinton, who has famously become less ebullient after his early work on neural nets, Shah also makes some interesting little points that I think are aimed at insiders, as when he quips that 'the token is what geeks use to charge by the syllable.' I found that funny.
AI will give you a better job
Dharmesh Shah
Here's another part of Shah's talk that I really wanted to focus on.
Further on in the presentation, he starts talking about his own origins in a village in India, where, he said, they didn't have a TV, or even a refrigerator. Then he contrasted that with his son's experience as an aspiring author, in which the young man is already involved in what Shah called 'world-building' (a la Minecraft?) a type of brilliant coding that allows him to explore the use of AI in an empowering way.
I thought this was a compelling way to talk about how the new generation may coexist with AI.
Another way to think about this is to enumerate the biggest fears about AI, like job displacement, ethical concerns regarding privacy, and the slow winnowing away of human intellectual powers. That's balanced against the potential to help society in fields like medicine, and boost productivity across many industries.
Let me take a few more phrases from Shah's talk that I think relate.
He referenced 'simple interaction, sophisticated action,' a phrase that seems to speak to a balance – a contrast between a seemingly small process, and a meaningful step. He also encouraged humans to 'be curious,' which seems to me to be the right way to encounter the technology. Instead of being fearful, or being mindlessly accepting – be curious, and don't abdicate critical thinking powers.
Finally, he asked people to 'dream big, but iterate small' – in other words, have a grand vision, but shepherd it carefully, in deliberate steps, rather than just lurching forward. Because, to some extent, we have to understand the technology well ourselves, to collaborate in the best ways.
More than the sum
JOHN WERNER
To figure out what our approach will be, we first have to engage with the tech, in planned and thoughtful ways. It is all so brand new. Maybe in a few years, we'll have developed a program for building that relationship – or maybe the children will figure it out for us.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
10 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Save Your Batteries, This Solar-Powered Security Camera Is 50% off Right Now
Are you looking to outfit your home with a new smart security camera? While sales events like Prime Day in July are a great time to buy, you can get this excellent Eufy wireless solar-powered 2K security camera today for only $65. The Eufy Solocam S220 is a capable outdoor security camera like any other, only it has a few fancy tricks up its sleeve. You won't have to run a bunch of long power wires or deal with constantly replacing or recharging batteries, something most security cameras struggle with. That's because this outdoor security camera is solar-powered and only needs about three hours of sunlight to keep tabs on your home daily. Eufy's Solocam S220's MSRP is $130, although it is often discounted to under $100. Lucky for you, Amazon just slashed the price by 50%, making this stellar camera only $64.99. So, what does this camera offer, and what can you expect for your money? Well, quite a bit, thankfully. It's easy to mount just about anywhere, although you'll want a spot with plenty of sunshine. Then, pair it with the Eufy app, and you'll get crystal-clear 2K resolution video of all the happenings around your home. While the battery inside is charged by the solar cell, you shouldn't have to deal with it at all. The Eufy Solocam S220 offers night vision thanks to an Infrared LED and movement detection. It also uses AI to detect familiar faces, animals, and more to know when a notification is worth sending. That way, you won't get alerts for a branch blowing in the wind. This outdoor solar-powered security camera only takes about five minutes to install. It has a durable IP67 rating to handle any outdoor conditions, 2-way audio, and custom security zones you can customize in the app, to name a few. More importantly, there's no monthly fee with Eufy, so you buy once and enjoy peace of mind for years to come. If there's a downside, the unit only has 8GB of storage, so storage space is somewhat limited. Either way, this solid camera makes home security a breeze. Grab yours before it sells out.
Yahoo
11 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Lightroom is working on a solution to my most-hated part of photo editing – and I couldn't be more excited
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Between taking photos and editing photos sits one of my least favorite parts of photography: culling, or the process of choosing which photos to edit. As a wedding photographer, culling a gallery of several thousand images takes hours of clicking through to find the best shots. But Adobe Lightroom is working on a new tool that could help speed up the culling process. In a teaser on social media, Adobe shared that developers are working on AI filters, a tool that works to recognize throw-away shots, like shots that are out of focus and blinking portraits. The AI filters, like many of the Lightroom tools, use a slider, allowing photographers to control how strictly to apply these auto-selection filters. A clean-up slider will also help remove accidental shutter triggers, as well as shots that are over- or underexposed. The AI will also be able to auto-group similar shots together, like those taken with burst mode. AI culling tools aren't new – but the tools that exist are third-party platforms and plug-ins that add to the growing number of subscriptions. While I hate culling, my growing subscription aversion has prevented me from buying AI culling software. The idea of getting faster culling without another subscription is one that I can get on board with (albeit one that has recently increased in price). I'm a Lightroom Classic user, and many of the latest AI-based tools have saved me a lot of time. If AI can do to culling what subject selection did to masking, then such a tool would save me hours of sifting through photographs. Sometimes, accidental photos end up as happy surprises – an out-of-focus shot that still captures the emotion of the moment, for example. That's why I'm excited by AI-supportive culling that adds speed yet still leaves the photographer in the driver's seat. But where I think AI culling can save the most time is picking the best shot out of several similar images. I spent a lot of time looking at similar photos to find the one that's the sharpest and discarding the close-eye shots. When I chatted with Adobe during the B&H Bild Expo in New York, Adobe indicated the AI filtering would be coming later this year to both Lightroom Classic and Lightroom Desktop. AI-based subject detection has saved me hours on tasks like whitening teeth, without even using generative AI. I have high hopes that the upcoming Lightroom AI Filters tool brings more of the same time-saving shortcuts to culling. Tired of culling too? Browse the best photo culling software. Or, take a look at the best photo editing software.
Yahoo
24 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Tesla vs. Waymo: What is the difference between the vehicles?
Tesla's robotaxis are set to hit the streets of Austin, Texas. When it comes to self-driving vehicles, the EV giant faces stiff competition from the Alphabet-backed Waymo (GOOG, GOOGL), which already has vehicles on the roads in several cities, one of which may soon be New York City. Stifel NextGen Transport analyst Stephen Gengaro has ridden in both vehicles. He shares his key takeaways from his experiences and why, ultimately, Tesla (TSLA) may have a leg up on the rival. To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Market Domination here.
