Good Robot: 2024 and the Dawn of AI
We are at the dawn of a new era. AI is captivating the minds of everyone, and with this new technology, the balance of work and play is once again beginning to shift.
So, what does this mean for you? Well for starters, it means that brainstorming a new idea just got a lot easier.
Now, instead of relying solely on your think-tank of choice - be they family members or trusted associates - for advice, you can ask AI a question and get a reasonable answer.
Is the answer going to be perfect? No. Not yet, but that is going to change rapidly.
It also means that if you need a visual representation of something, you can have AI create photorealistic interpretations of your imaginations, so long as you can describe them well enough with words. (PROTIP: if you need help describing those imaginations, you could call on Chat GPT to help you write a prompt.)
And where can you find those AI tools?
For help with brainstorming and writing things, Chat GPT can be found right here. https://chat.openai.com/
For help with images and bringing your imagination to life, Dall•E 2 can be found right here. https://openai.com/dall-e-2
And you can actually find both under one roof with a quick subscription to Chat GPT Plus which can be found right here. https://openai.com/gpt-4
Chat GPT Plus can also crawl the web in real time, so that’s a handy feature, and one of the major differences between the free version of Chat and the subscription model (which costs $20 per month, so not a very big investment for a ridiculously powerful assistant)
And while many of us have heard about Chat GPT, did you know that Google is launching its own General AI? Yep, they sure are! And it’s going to be light years ahead of what Open AI has given the world with Chat GPT and Dall•E.
But it’s not just Google that’s launching its own AI … Zuckerberg and the Meta Group of Companies are currently exploring what General AI can do for their social media platforms, as well as the various other projects they have a hand in.
And I’m sure that Musk is not too far behind with his own AI ( ironic, considering he was the primary funding behind the rise of Open AI) and it’s honestly a teensy bit scary because he’s also developing the first generation of consumer level humanoid robots.
These humanoid robots will be able to fulfil simple and mundane tasks with precision and efficiency, and Musk intends every family to have one for helping out with household chores and other time-wasting tasks.
But if you thought that was crazy, this’ll really send you for a loop … the first units will be available to the general public in less than two years, with pricing starting at around $20,000 per unit. That’s less than the price of a small entry level car, and the advantages this technology will offer is going to create a fundamental shift in how we view everyday life.
To say that this is an extremely interesting time in which to be alive, is the understatement of the last two millennia.
So what does all this mean for you? For starters, don’t hide under a rock with all this AI stuff.
Get into it a bit! Try it out! Become familiar with what it is, what it can do, and what its limitations are.
We always knew that whenever AI showed up, it would herald the dawn of a new era, and that time has come. Your job now is to make sure you’re paying attention.
Because consumerism isn’t going to change anytime soon. The only thing that will really change is how you engage with that consumerism, and how you leverage these new technologies for yourself.
Can A.I. write your business plan? Absolutely. Can AI actually think? No.
Is AI going to nuke a lot of jobs? You bet. Is it going to melt the economy? Not a chance.
So what you need to do is find out where AI fits into your business model, and how you can leverage that, as we dip our collective souls into the unknown vastness that is general artificial intelligence.
~ Daniel Schmidt