Premium Skills for the ChatGPT AI World
And ChatGPT provides advice from Odin, Norse God of Wisdom, War and Death
I don’t intend this newsletter to become “all ChatGPT, all the time” (and I promise it won’t be) but the new tool and the implications of an AI world have caught the attention of a lot of people, including myself. In fact, I’m in the process of building a set of slides that offer an introduction, insights and implications of ChatGPT & AI. OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, said recently,
“People may say the words (i.e.AI will change the world), but they don’t seem to be acting that way. We’re heading towards that kind of world very quickly.”
Hence my interest in pondering the impacts of this potential technological milestone.
One of the things I’ve been thinking about is, “what are the skills would become more valuable in a world in which machines can start to replace many of the abilities of humans?” I think the obvious answer is, “those skills that the AI cannot replicate” (at least not yet).
Here are a few that come to mind:
Unlearning to Relearn: Dynamic and rapid change will characterize the coming environment. For most people, this means we will need to learn new processes, applications, and concepts. This requires us to shed ways that no longer are useful and quickly pick up new skills to stay ahead of the game.
Analyzing and Decision-making: For very specific uses such as autonomous vehicles, AI is already doing decision-making. And general AI tools like ChatGPT are great at providing easily-accessed information and offering options. However, for higher-order problems such as deciding which firm to acquire, humans are still needed to evaluate the data and determine the actions to take based on a broad set of values and goals. Hone those capabilities.
Flexibility and Resilience: In a world in which artificial intelligence will be continually and significantly changing the game, these two abilities will be crucial in adapting and surviving. Foster both.
Networking and Influencing: In the physical world, getting the mission accomplished requires having a strong web of people who can help you and the capacity to bring them along to support your ideas. This will only become more essential in the AI-influenced environment.
“Promptability”: In an age of AI products that can provide text responses, create images and write code based on a human prompt, the capability to write good prompts will be extremely useful. As Jung said, “To ask the right question is already half the solution of a problem.”
AI Literacy: To understand what is happening around us and maintain current, each of us will have to become proficient in the use and ramifications of new AI tools. You may as well start playing with them now, using products such as ChatGPT, DreamStudio AI and Codex. Of course, which apps you pick up will depend on your profession and interests, so dive in.
What competencies do you think are most needed in this new future? Let me know in the comments and I may add them to my presentation.
Per the subtitle, I promised to share what ChatGPT offered as advice from Odin. Here is its reply.
I think the advice is excellent. both in terms of ChatGPT accurately representing what Odin stood for but also simply as great advice overall.
I do have one issue with one part of ChatGPT’s answer; the final sentence: “Please note, this is fictional advice from a mythical being, if you are looking for practical advice,
you might want to consult with real people.”
On the contrary, I believe myths provide great insights for us on how to act in the world, because they represent wisdom gained through the ages by humans from a particular culture. Interestingly, ChatGPT agrees with me here, as this response illustrates, as the tool offered several reasons why myths are valuable.
Perhaps ChatGPT is more human than we thought, as it appears it can be of two minds on the same subject. :-)
A good rule of thumb I drafted up: too see if certain skills are AI-resilient, it should be (a) easily learned by a geek but difficult for a "theater kid" or a "head girl"; (b) resilient against the absence of "OC do not steal"; (c) less wordy and symbolic in favor of multi-faceted and interdisciplinary thought. https://archive.ph/Ddv8V https://archive.ph/6dHdy https://kirkegaard.substack.com/p/the-verbal-tilt-model https://archive.ph/1OU8P
An even more messy analysis here https://bradnbutter.substack.com/p/porn-martyrs-cyborgs-part-1