Everyone’s been talking about AI lately. There’s a new huge breakthrough every week (often two or three!) and it feels overwhelming. It’s why we’ve started this website!
There have been lots of different AI programs recently released to the public and it’s caused quite a stir. It’s raised a lot of ethical questions and it’s had a lot of people worried that machines are going to take over and leave a lot of people out of work.
Despite the controversy AI has created, you need to get to know it. In this article we are going to tell you why, we’re going to have a look at some of the new AI programs that have become recently available to the public, and give you a few pointers on making the most of this new technological revolution we’ve all found ourselves in.
Getting to Know AI
How do you get to know about the new AI technology we’ve all been hearing about? Well, first of all, you need to know what AI is.
Imagine a supercomputer that can see, hear, read, and perform tasks based on what it learns.
It might sound like the stuff of sci-fi, but despite AI having been dominating the talk of tech for the last few months, AI has been around for a long time and we’ve all been using it for decades.
Can’t decide what music you want to listen to? That’s AI providing you with a list of music you’ve listened to before and other music in the same genre you might also like. All that SPAM email that used to clog up your inbox that’s now being automatically diverted to your spam folder, that’s AI. Targeted advertising, Google Maps, autocorrect, predictive text, face recognition on your phone, Siri, Alexa – these are all examples of AI.
The reason people are talking about AI now is because us regular folks, despite having used it for ages, only now have we just got access to create with it.
What Kinds Of AI Programs Are Out there?
We’re going to give you a quick rundown on just some of the newest AI programs that are accessible to everyone to give you an idea of what’s out there right now, so you can go out and explore what they have to offer.
Chat GPT
Chat GPT is the fastest growing app in the history of mankind. In the simplest of terms, it’s an AI chatbot that is designed to have conversations with people. Imagine a chat partner that has Google installed in their brain and remembers everything you said and does everything you ask, instantly.
Write me a poem, a song, an essay, a meal plan, create me a recipe, code me a website, plan me a trip, help me improve my resume, practice my interview skills – the possibilities, it seems, are only limited by your imagination.
It can code, and it can pass most graduate-level exams. Law school, business school, medical boards, etc. You can think of it as a 130+ IQ assistant smarter than most of your professors, which costs $20/month (for access to the GPT+ system).
DeScript Overdub
Descript is a multi-faceted tool for video and sound recording, one of its features is Overdub. You can upload audio files of your own voice and AI will learn it. Then you can type anything you want and AI will read it back to you in your own voice!
Synthesia
Synthesia allows you to make engaging videos with AI-created human presenters. There are over 50 different presenters to choose from and they will say anything you want them to, in any language you want. Camera shy? This solves not only that issue, but having to hire someone to make the presentation for you.
AI Image Generators
Craiyon, DALL-E 2, Stable Diffusion, and Midjourney are all examples of Ai image generators that can create any image from a text prompt. Simply type in whatever you want to see and in just a few seconds, the image generator will render several images of whatever you specify. And I mean WHATEVER you specify. Check out our article – Craiyon is here. Wanna Play? – to get an idea of what’s possible with that, and see this article to learn how to set up Midjourney.
Why You Need To Know About AI
Is AI something you’ve just kind of heard about, but dismissed because you’re not really sure what it’s all about? Or are you among those in the creative sector, pissed about the idea that AI could potentially make you redundant and your response to that is making anti-AI memes? Is the idea of having to learn new technology a terrifying prospect?
Well, AI is here and it’s not going anywhere. And much like the advent of the desktop computer and the Internet, it’s going to totally change the way things are being done. So regardless of what side of the fence you sit on – love it, or hate it – here’s why you need to get to know AI.
There will be a lot of things that AI will be able to offer in all aspects of the creative realm that were not available before. That doesn’t mean that you, as someone working in the creative domain, will become obsolete. It just means that those working in the creative industries who are in the know about how to use this new technology and are able to incorporate it into their process, will be those who are in demand.
And as for everyone else, AI is the future and it’s here. Once the desktop computer became the operating norm for businesses in the late 80s, if you didn’t keep up with the tech of the time and didn’t know how to use a computer, you would have had a hard time getting a job, even then.
Today – no chance.
AI is set to make some jobs redundant.
But there’s plenty of work out there (at least for now), it’s just that the kind of work that’s available that is going to change. According to Harvard Business Review, automation is primed to displace 85 million jobs by 2025, but the shift will also create 97 million new jobs.
The jobs which require high repetition, data entry, and scanning are those that we’re likely to see diminished. So, while we’ll probably see fewer people at the checkout counter, scanning packages for delivery, or working on the factory floor, there will be plenty of work to go around in arenas we might not have even thought of yet.
For most industries, AI will play an important role in streamlining processes, with more efficiency and less margin of error. But at the end of the day, even if certain jobs are replaced by AI, people still need to run the machines.
For creative industries, AI can aid in the design and development process, but it lacks creativity, empathy, and the understanding that humans offer. The creative decision-making part of the design process is always going to be better when it is undertaken by someone who has a natural talent for or has been trained in the creative fields.
For a thoughtful look at the future, and how AI will impact the job market going forward, check out this interview with OpenAI founder Sam Altman, from Lex Friedman’s podcast.
AI is not the enemy, it’s the evolution of things and you need to get to know it. And now, more than ever, you need to get to know it now.
You have to remember, back in the day, when the new technological wonders of the time, like the desktop computer and the Internet were introduced, the technology was not advancing as fast as it is today. What used to be taking decades to improve upon is now taking months, weeks, and sometimes even just days.
I literally had to edit and update an article I wrote because some of the information was out-of-date literally three days after I wrote it. Check out the updated version of “Why AI Can’t Draw Hands.” Spoiler alert: Midjourney 5 was just released and it can render normal human hands!
The Difference between Just Staying Current And Excelling In The New AI Era
The easier a task is to perform, the less money you will make from it and the less in demand you will be.
How easy are these AI programs to use on a scale of 1-10? They’re a 1. You literally just type in a box.
Okay well, there’s a little bit more to it than that. But essentially once you’ve figured out what to type into that box to get the best results, it’s still just typing in a box.
You don’t need to know any programming code or have any artistic abilities or special training. Essentially everyone can learn how to do it.
Why would someone pay you to type in a box? Would you pay someone to type in a box and do a Google search for you? No, you’d do it yourself.
So how is someone supposed to compete or even stop from becoming redundant in a job market where it seems that now just about anyone can perform tasks that only professional specialists were able to do before?
Everyone is looking for the next ‘tool in the box’, the next ChatGTP or Dall-E to try to keep up-to-date. But just knowing about these tools is not what’s going to make you rich or in demand, due to their ease of use. It’s what you do with these tools outside of the box that is what’s going to make you stand out and have the edge over everyone else.
Think about the advent of the Internet.
It was the new ‘tool’ and it changed the way everything was done. But knowing how to use the Internet didn’t make someone in any more demand than the other 4 billion people using it. It’s those who used the Internet to create something different, outside of that toolbox that really cashed in on the new technology.
Jeff Bezos didn’t invent the Internet, but he used it to create Amazon.
Think of all of the companies that sprung up that offered unique and never before seen products and services, only possible through the Internet – PayPal, Facebook, Uber, Linked In, TikTok, all of the apps that came out, all of the online businesses that were created, all of the existing businesses who used the internet to expand their client base or streamline efficiency and expand.
There are two groups of people who profited the most: those that understood the potential of these new tools to create a new realm of services that people were lining up to pay for; and those that were trained in the new technology to create all of these new businesses and services, like the web developers, web designers, coders, and everyone with the knowledge of the new tech to make all of these things happen.
The one thing these two groups of people had in common that made them so successful, was that they also had the timing to ride the wave of the new technological revolution from the beginning.
Take Away
People thought that we’ll never see another technological breakthrough like the World Wide Web. That was a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence. And then all of a sudden, AI is here, accessible to everyone. New machine learning systems and apps are being released much faster than we can report on here.
AI is opening the door to all sorts of new opportunities that have never been so accessible. It’s your door to walk through.
Imagine having this opportunity and wasting it! The world’s biggest companies are going all in. Microsoft is investing 10 billion dollars into ChatGPT. Google has announced their competitor to Chat GTP called Bard. Mark Zukerberg announced AI personas coming to FB, Instagram and WhatsApp messengers.
It’s not a big secret that if you want to make money and be successful, follow the money. This is a modern-day gold rush and right before our eyes, we’re seeing the biggest companies in the world going all in.
But are you?
You can’t afford to be complacent. Get on board or get replaced – not by AI, but by your competition.
This is your opportunity to climb aboard the AI train to be part of the evolution… and that’s why you need to get to know AI.
