A.I. will hit our Education system, our Children more severely than our Jobs in next 5–10 years…
If I ask you, how difficult is it to cut down one tree? You’ll say — “Well, that’s easy. We have state of the art automatic, light weight, saw blade cutting machines for that”. But what if you need to kill a forest? Well that might take some effort. We could deploy hundreds of huge cranes with robotic arms to do the job, or may be just burn the whole forest down. But you know what? That won’t still kill the Forest. You wont be able to kill every plant, seedling or shrub and something will always grow back….but there is an easier way out. You poison a small portion of the land and let the Trees (that are all connected at their roots by an amazingly vast network on underground mycelium) will do the rest of the damage themselves.
Well, in this sad story, humanity is the forest and our exponentially increasing rate of technology dependency leading us to learn less, remember lesser, shying away from skills that involve our hands, feet, senses, muscles, memory, comprehension and aptitude in our daily lives — well, that is our Poison. A.I. was never built to kill Humans. Only humans can do that to other humans. AI is just code, algorithms, insane computing and processing power, a technique to remember and improve upon with each iteration — that’s AI. Built by some of the smartest people on this planet, mostly but not all with good intention.
You must have heard that AI wont take away your jobs, it will create more opportunities with different kind of jobs. Well, that is really true but may be not the complete picture. “An automated milling machine, for example, didn’t transform the metalworker into a more creative artisan; it turned him into a pusher of buttons”.
There is a concept in computer science called “Encapsulation”. It’s just a geek way of saying that you hide all the complexity in a beautiful and smart way so that the code or in our case a person using that object don’t need to bother, what’s behind the hood. Buttons and levers can fly an aeroplane, that’s encapsulation. Typing on keyboard can send emails, that’s encapsulation. Asking Alexa or Siri to play Music, that’s encapsulation. Switching from manual to automatic mode, while driving a car, that’s encapsulation. Letting the Car drive itself, that’s encapsulation…Well can you see a pattern? With each encapsulation, life is getting easier but at the same time, humans are letting go something important. A skill, an aptitude, a struggle, a need or a desire to learn and remember and adapt. Now you might argue, what’s the point of learning outdated skills. Well, that seems obvious. Ok. Then you might say, what’s the point of remembering anything when it’s all available out there on demand, but then you’ll quickly take back that statement because you still belong to a generation who may find that thought a bit worrisome.
Let me cut to the chase and give you something that will kick you straight in your gut. You know what’s the next stage of technology encapsulation, or rather should we say, knowledge and skill encapsulation, memory encapsulation, struggle and development encapsulation — come on? We all have been talking about that buzz on Twitter and LinkedIn lately like crazy…that ChatGPT thing? Well, there have been many AI technologies before ChatGPT and even better ones that will follow but what ChatGPT did so well for you and me, like none ever of it’s predecessors before? Yup, Encapsulation. Bingo! It took away the complexity and can do (new, more complex) things for you by just telling / chatting it to.
Now, while all this ChatGPT thing seems fun, trending and debatable of what it can and cannot do, contemplating about it is actually a complete waste of time because most of us don’t know shit about how complex these Machine Learning systems are, and how much time, effort and money it takes to build and improve these systems, let alone it’s limitations, capabilities and that the next version of AI that could make our current technology look so insignificant. But something so powerful in the hands of everyone got a lot of us thinking, ‘Is my job safe?’.
Well, short answer, depends what kind of job are you in, how much value you are adding and how easy it is for almost anyone else (another human) to learn quickly and replace you. Those people mostly are asked to leave first. Unfortunately, there are some really smart ones who are made to go as well. That’s called recession. There is nothing AI about it.
Next comes jobs and tasks that are easy to automate with a lot of computing power and seemingly unlimited access to data, patterns and acquired intelligence. This is where most people may start feeling insecure. My wife is an experienced and very talented creative visual Designer, and she was the last person I thought would think of ChatGPT as a threat.
The concern is real but I think, we are still not looking at the bigger picture. You lose a job, you’ll work harder, tap into your (human) network, make some new connections, polish your previously learned skills, acquire something new and maybe after some struggle, you’ll hopefully find a new job. May be a different one, could be better or may be not your favourite one but that could still pay your bills.
But think about it. What just saved you were not the tools you knew at work or your current day-job profile — but the skills you learned, aptitude you built, and real life experiences you gained over the years in an era when machines and AI did not do everything for you. Those years were called growing up as kids and teenagers — meeting strangers in a classroom and making your first friend, fixing your bike on your way back from school, helping dad with accounting, learning French as a foreign language, giving your driving test, writing long essays for your college application, writing a hand-written ‘Miss you’ letter to your grandma, helping grandpa grow tomatoes in the garden, reading newspaper everyday to build your vocabulary but actually falling in love with reading (books) itself, remembering all the 20 phone numbers of your family, friends and even neighbours….all of that helped you and will continue helping you in your journey, even if AI starts taking away some jobs or pushes you in different, new, unexplored career options.
But think about it. What happens to kids who are kids today. What happen if they end up skipping all that journey, all that experience, that skill and aptitude development. What will save them in their future if they end up spending their childhood and teenage years letting AI and technology do everything for them, including their Education.
This thought, this thought right here, should scare the shit out of us. Not losing our jobs, but losing a generation by letting technology and AI do everything for them…and it is not Technology’s or AI’s fault. It will be the biggest mistake of our generation, us grown-ups itself.
So stop worrying about your Job. You will up-skill, find a new job. But we all need to ensure that we encourage our younger generation to not become a slave to technology and AI or whatever comes next to ChatGPT because the next AI version will be way more powerful and you wont be able to do anything about it. What you can do is help your kids, nieces and nephew not get sucked into this digital, virtual world to an extreme extent. Encourage them not to be so dependent on technology for everything but also spend time to build real-world life skills; help them understand that Science is so much more fun outdoors; that you will never die of hunger or thirst if you know how to grow basic food; that you will always find a way to survive and thrive if you can build things, not only using your brain but also using your hands; pick up skills that will build a solid foundation to live a sustainable life both for oneself and for the planet because the way we are suffocating our planet, there is a high probability your sustainability and survival skills will come very very handy.
I am Vikas Singh, Founder and CEO at GiftdMinds and I have dedicated the rest of my life to ensure just this. Not only for my 3 yr old kid but for all the kids, teenagers and (even grown-ups) of this and future generation. We are building GiftdMinds so that if you or your child decide that you don’t want to become too dependent on technology to an extent that it could compromise your health, your career, your future then GiftdMinds could help you learn, experience and build an aptitude that will stay with you for life — be it Science, Sustainability or Life-Skills; start as a hobby, pursue it as a promising future Career option and build a foundation for a healthy life for you and your family.
Hope this resonates with most of the people reading this post. Share it with your kids, your neighbours, your colleagues who think like you, who are concerned. Let us not allow anyone or anything destroy our Forest. We are not against Technology or AI, we will use it to help us become stronger, healthier, happier but we won’t blindly depend on it, for everything.
What could be better that quoting one of the first AI movies itself to end this post…”If you are listening to this, you are the resistance.” #JoinUs #GiftdMinds
Practical, Hands-on Learning & Experience in Science, Sustainability and real-world Life Skills : www.GiftdMinds.com
You can find latest updates and upcoming Workshop details here :
LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/company/giftdminds
Insta : https://www.instagram.com/giftdminds/
Twitter : https://twitter.com/GiftdMinds
Medium : https://giftdminds.medium.com/
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/GiftdMinds
