AI and Lifelong Learning
We’ll start today’s Muse with a “Happy Mother’s Day” to my mom, my wife Linda, and all the other amazing mom’s that keep the world spinning ‘round.
AI, AI, AI. Everyone’s talking about the challenges and opportunities that individuals, corporations, institutions, and governments face as artificial intelligence tools gain prominence in our daily lives. I’m amused by the shock and dismay that surrounds the debate in many circles—as if the rise of the efficacy of tools like ChatGPT 4, Bard, Bing, Chatsonic, etc., just arrived on the scene out of left field. We either knew or should have known that continued reductions in the incremental cost of computing, coupled with advances in natural language processing (NLP) experiments would yield offspring such as the large language models (LLM) we see today.
To be clear, I’m not an expert in AI, but I am a lifelong educator, entrepreneur, and business leader who has navigated through myriad societal changes during my career. This moment in time feels sneakingly similar to the rise of the Internet in the mid-late 1990s and the explosion of tools and new business models that followed. Those that did not embrace this new technology were left behind and are likely still paying for it in the form of everything from clumsy, incoherent technology stacks to fixed mindsets that lead people to rail against progress.
I’m nearing my 60th birthday at the close of this coming summer and face a choice very similar to the choice that my parent’s generation faced in the late 1990s. I can either learn more about NLP, LLM, and what’s coming next, or I can tell myself that “I’m too old to learn something new” and be left in the dust—begging my children’s generation for the remainder of my years to help me use the avalanche of new tools and technologies that will undoubtedly sprout from today’s LLM seeds.
Should everyone become experts in new AI tools? No. Should we all commit to being curious and expending some level of effort to understand what AI is, what it is not, and how it will impact us and our businesses moving forward? Absolutely. If nothing else sparks a desire to commit to learning more about AI, the ways in which bad actors will twist new tools to create new ways of conning you and your business out of your hard earned $$ should be enough. At a minimum, we should all know how to protect ourselves from the crooks and thieves that will be coming out of the woodwork.
So what can we as individuals and business leaders do now? Ignoring the challenges and opportunities of new AI tools and burying our heads in the sand is not an option.
Commit to becoming a lifelong learner. This may sound cliché, but shedding a fixed “I already know everything I need to know” mindset is essential. There are already a plethora of YouTube videos out that help describe how to get the most from currently available tools like ChatGPT—many of which are customized to specific applications and use cases. LinkedIn Learning and your local community college or university extension will have low/no cost options to consider if you want to dive in deeper.
Encourage and mentor your network to build key skills that will be needed to thrive in tomorrow’s knowledge economy. In my opinion, the most important skill as it applies to the rise of AI is that of critical thinking. Critical thinking rests upon the foundations of curiosity, creativity, research, analysis, synthesis, constructive skepticism, decision-making, and the art of asking good questions—all of which will be essential when interacting with new AI-based tools. A close second in the category of skills to develop is that of coding. Here, I’m not talking about becoming a computer programmer, but learning the basics of how computer programs are built is, or will soon become, a base-level requirement for labor market participation.
Support national regulation efforts. Why do we need regulation? Without it, the bad actors will run rampant and society will be caught flat-footed in the face of unconstrained AI tool development. We need to be able to trust that businesses, institutions, and developers are working in the best interests of their direct stakeholders and society at large. As I discuss in my forthcoming book, The Balanced Business, trust depends on proper accountability frameworks. The current lack of accountability frameworks should give everyone cause for concern and we must act now to protect the vulnerable in our society from the hackers and thieves who conspire to take advantage of those who cannot protect themselves. Bias must be minimized in systems and societal equity must be a priority.
So, should we be freaking out about AI? No. Should we adopt a sense of urgency to learn more and figure out how to best work alongside new technologies? Absolutely. Fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) is a powerful force. Adopt a lifelong learning mindset to keep FUD at bay.
And no, I did not utilize an AI tool to write today’s Muse.
