Rock ‘n Roll & AI? – read on!  Coming, Ready ……….or Not? 

Michelle Bentley, General Manager Hender Careers

30 Jan 2023

ChatGPT – is here, and it needs to be on everyone's radar.

Artificial Intelligence - affectionately known as AI has, after many years of development, suddenly become the talk of town. Revelations of a much-hyped tool ChatGPT, has caught the attention of many and promises an avalanche of further AI developments. Views are contrasting in receptiveness - to adopt and embrace or to defend and stay firm with past practice?

From Bill Gates to Twitter, media platforms are promptly debating the benefits and pitfalls.    The Australian Financial Review reporting on Gates’ Lowy Institute address - https://www.lowyinstitute.org/video-listing - suggests huge potential benefits for the health and education sectors. However white-collar roles are likely the first to be impacted, suggesting this component of the workforce needs to be ready to adapt or accept the consequences! Gates has suggested that knowledge-based, white-collar jobs would go as a result of the greater sophistication of AI. 

Love it or loath it, technological advances, such as AI, are profoundly transformational in ‘the way we do things’, and we need to ‘go with it’!

Early preparation, an open mind, appetite and willingness to accommodate and adapt to the change may smooth the way and facilitate greater opportunities for your career. Conversely, for those doggedly resistant, it may be career limiting!?

Governments, business owners, leaders, managers, employees and the general public may hesitate to embrace this AI / IT transformation, but in reality, we will all require skills to utilise these marvellous innovations as well as develop the skills to authenticate the accuracy of AI sourced and constructed information.  In ‘my world’ I say, beware resumes and cover letters crafted by ChatGPT or similar, which draw you in and impress, but the contents of which cannot be authenticated! Issues we have previously grappled with, but now will take a step up in sophistication and test the less discerning.

So as John Davidson wrote -  Is ChatGPT a form of magic or the apocalypse? 

https://www.afr.com/technology/is-chatgpt-a-form-of-magic-or-the-apocalypse-20230117-p5cd4p

Maybe the words of Nicholas Therkelsen-Terry, the co-founder and CEO of Max Kelsen, (AI software development company) gives us pause for thought; 

“I do think that ChatGPT marks the start of an ‘all-at-once’ moment in the human evolutionary journey with technology,”  …. Knowledge work is now far more under threat than it ever has been in history, and we’re going to see a lot of change in what our workforces look like very soon.” 

“Things change and jobs change and the nature of work changes, and we as humans roll on,” he says.

The big question, are we rolling?

Rock ‘n Roll has always been a fav form of dance for me – looks like we will all need to be quick on our feet as AI breaks into the rhythm of life and work!