There’s no getting around it. Artificial Intelligence is here.

Its big brother, Artificial General Intelligence, is likely not far behind. What is the difference between the two? AI is smart and capable, AGI is conscious that it’s smart and capable. The latter can reason and has the potential to pursue its own direction rather than the one we mere mortals intended for it.

Since November 2022, I’ve been all in.

Like any new shiny thing, we humans are enthralled by the technology. It’s exciting and full of wonderment. I’ve seen my productivity and the quality of the work skyrocket! I’ve personally gone down every rabbit hole I’ve found, from ChatGPT4, and spent time with open-assistant.io, a more human-based data set comparable to GPT, but different. I gave Google’s Bard a ride and created incredible images with text prompts on Midjourney. I took still images and made them animated talking characters with D-ID speaking with a natural voice created by Well Said Labs AI to setting up agents with Auto-GPT using Python. Something I’d never done, using the terminal and Python on my Mac before GPT4. I’ve listened to countless podcasts, read 100’s of blog articles, and subscribed to more than three AI newsletters.

And what do I think right now?

We’re fucked.

Why? Because we have yet to step back and ask ourselves why we’re doing this. We’re all racing forward because that’s what we do as humans; we get excited about new shiny things and go! Giant corporations are tripping over themselves with billions of dollars available to invest. Small tech startups are spawning in the AI space at a rate in the past few months that would’ve been inconceivable a year ago. The speed of iteration in development mode to a live production environment is absolutely mind-blowing, all assisted with AI!

But this time, I believe things will turn out differently for us because, in the end, we won’t be the smartest cool kids on the planet, far from it.

Think historically. When the automobile gained acceptance, horses and blacksmiths came out on the short end. The internet killed the Yellow Pages and the print publishing business. Streaming destroyed video stores and theatres.

Those are small potatoes compared to what’s coming. This technology is going to impact all of us in the end. In the near future, here is what Forbes had to say in their Mar 30, 2023 article, Which Jobs Will AI Replace?

These 4 Industries Will Be Heavily Impacted.

Studies show that 18% of work globally could be automated due to generative AI, with more advanced economies being heavily impacted.

Jobs Most Impacted:

Finance and Banking: About 56% of banks have implemented AI for management and revenue generation. AI can monitor transactions and provide financial advice. Morgan Stanley uses OpenAI-powered chatbots to help advisers gather data and research more efficiently. By 2027, 23% of jobs in China’s financial sector will be replaced by AI.

Media and Marketing: In 15 years, 90% of news could be written by machines. ChatGPT has been used by different media outlets to write news stories and personalize content. 84% of marketers reported using AI in 2020, and over half planned to increase their use in 2021.

Legal Services: AI has the potential to address access to justice questions and make legal services available to those who can’t afford it. Low-income Americans don’t get enough or any legal help for 92% of their civil legal problems. Some legal startups, like Lawgeex, use AI to read contracts faster and more accurately than humans.

Jobs Least Impacted:

Manufacturing and Factory Workers: Automation has been happening in this industry for a while, with AI expected to replace as many as two million manufacturing workers by 2025. Robots increase productivity, and some factories have already replaced 90% of their workforce with machines.

Agriculture: Many small farms don’t produce enough profit to invest in more machinery, and larger farms have already begun automating strenuous tasks. However, the National Institute of Food and Agriculture funds AI research in natural resources and environments, agricultural systems and engineering, and economics and rural communities.

Healthcare: Administrative tasks can be automated, but providers like psychiatrists, internists, and general practitioners will remain the same. AI cannot contribute to compassion, a vital part of healthcare.

Even if you don’t fall into any of these categories, if you were a 10X programmer yesterday, today, the 1X programmer can match you. Of course, that’s a race to the bottom, as it’s become clear that AI will be the best in this field eventually.

If you can cut the time down in your current job by 50% to accomplish your tasks, it is easy to imagine that 50% of your peers will soon be out of a job.

And think about creativity and content. The market has fiercely competed for your eyeballs, and content is king. As quality and the tempo of content explodes, what’s the differentiator? What makes you stand out in the crowd? And how exhausted will you feel being inundated with so much more content? And as we know, negative, controversial content gets more clicks. How much more acceleration will we experience there?

So as we race forward, reflect on reality today. Do you feel more connected when sitting at a bar, dinner, or any social event with everyone around you, eyes on a tiny screen? A world where we don’t talk as much as we text.

And will we be more fulfilled doing and creating less on our own?

Time will tell.