#43: AWS Gets Into the Generative AI Game, AutoGPT and Autonomous AI Agents, and How AI Could Impact Millions of Knowledge Workers Sooner Than You Think

AI-driven automation is quickly becoming a fundamental part of
businesses’ tech stacks, but there are also potential dangers
associated with this technology. Paul pointed out that AI-driven
automation is quickly becoming a fundamental part of businesses’
tech stacks. "I feel like the large language model is going to be
as fundamental to the tech stack as a CRM has been for the last ten
to 15 years," he said. Mike added that businesses should look for
models that allow them to customize the model with their own data
and integrate it into their own applications. "You want to tune
these models on that data, whether it’s for internal external use
cases, and you want to be highly confident in the privacy and
security of that data and how these models work within your
organization," he said. AI technology is rapidly advancing and is
capable of performing complex tasks autonomously with minimal human
intervention. Paul discussed AI technology and the need for safety
and alignment when building these applications. "We're not going
back, we're not going to just stop trying to build these action
transformers," he said. "But I really hope that the people that are
building these things understand the potential ramifications of
what they're building and do everything in their power internally
and with their peers who are working on similar technology, to do
everything possible, to do it in a responsible way, and to do it
with safety, first and foremost." Mike then discussed the impact of
AI on labor, noting that AI tech has accelerated the ability of AI
to perform knowledge work, including strategic and creative work.
AI is advancing quickly and is likely to significantly reduce the
time it takes to complete knowledge tasks such as writing, design,
coding, and planning. Paul noted that AI-driven disruption of
knowledge work is a very real possibility and that organizations
and leaders should plan for significant job loss. He also pointed
to a survey of almost 800 people, which showed that lack of
education and training was the top obstacle to adoption. "It’s
coming; it’s going to intelligently automate large portions of your
work," Roetzer said. "Based on my own experiences in research as
well as the context of dozens of conversations, it is reasonable to
assume the time to complete most knowledge tasks such as writing,
design, coding, planning, et cetera, can be reduced on average 20%
to 30% at minimum with current generative AI technology. And the
tech is getting faster and smarter at a compounding rate, so these
percentages are only going to rise what it's capable of doing." AI
technology has the potential to create a wide range of new jobs and
career paths. Paul and Mike discussed the potential impacts of AI
technology on the job market and the economy. Mike noted that "this
is not just wild speculation," and Paul agreed, saying "I do
believe it's going to create lots of new jobs and career paths we
can't imagine." He went on to explain that "the flaws and
limitations of generative AI are greater than are being discussed
in the media and will prevent mass disruption in the near term."
Paul also highlighted the importance of humans in the AI process,
noting that "the dependence of the machine on the human to make
sure it's accurate and safe and aligned with human values" is
essential. He suggested creating "generative AI policies that
explicitly say how you're using language tools, image generation
tools, video generation tools, etc." This episode is brought to you
by BrandOps, built to optimize your marketing strategy, delivering
the most complete view of marketing performance, allowing you to
compare results to competitors and benchmarks.