I began writing this blog post Sunday night after watching the 60 Minutes episode that spanned almost 30 minutes (much longer than the average segment) about the AI revolution that we all know is coming extremely fast. Host interviewer Scott Pelley was taken aback by such emotion at one point that he had tears in his eyes saying “I am rarely speechless. I don’t know what to make of this.” While this felt a bit corny (it is in fact his job to draw emotion from audiences), I knew I had to write this post about my questions, comments, and concerns regarding this so-called AI revolution and episode put on by 60 Minutes that primarily involved talking with Google CEO and AI development team. In the middle of the episode, I texted my dad because I know his usual Sunday night routine involves watching 60 Minutes (guess I’m turning into my dad earlier than I thought I would…).
Me: Are you watching this 60 Minutes episode right now?
Him: Yes. Fascinating.
We talked on the phone for a bit after regarding each other’s opinions and ideas on it. My dad is a very practical and unassuming guy as you can tell from his text message, but even he harped on how much more significant AI is going to be than he originally gave it credit for. I would like to pause and say that it is truly awesome that we are lucky enough to be taking this course now during the beginning of the AI revolution. In due time, we’ll be able to look back at these blog posts, guest speakers, and Twitter to see how our expectations failed or were completely shattered.
My biggest takeaway from 60 Minutes and everything we’ve learned in class is: today AI is a powerful technological tool that can take the entirety of data and information that is given to it – basically all of the Internet which relies on being able to read and write human language – and can output something pretty accurately that reads, sounds, or looks like it was done by a sophisticated human being. This is my collectively exhausting summary of what AI is today. Compound this over and over again with microchips that can handle AI tasks 100,000 times faster than the human brain. Who knows where we will be in 10, 20, or 30 years? I bet life is going to look incredibly different. Shoutout to the readers who are familiar with the “society if ______” meme. It just felt appropriate.
Scott Pelley interviewed and talked with Google CEO Sundar Pichai for a large portion of the episode. I thought Pichai was extremely well-spoken and concise with his responses; one I found particularly interesting. He was asked: is society ready for what is coming? He gave two answers: 1) No. The pace at which societal institutions think and adapt compared to the rate of technological evolution does not match. 2) Yes. More people are worried early enough to spark conversations about its implications. If we can loop back to his first answer, it seems that he might believe our society isn’t handling the technology we already have like we should or to the best of our productive, happy, and ethical abilities (could he alluding to what I discussed in my first blog post?). As for his second answer, I’m not convinced at all. Who is going to have these conversations that set the precedent? It is an astronomically large conversation that could span over a decade, and those doing the creating won’t be waiting for any sort of a decision, especially when Pichai says that “AI will impact every product in every company.” He’s most certainly not wrong.
A question for the readers: What is something that AI will not impact? Let me know what you think so we can start a conversation in the comments.