Now ChatGPT is here and with the ever increasing rise in smart digital marketing Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools that I keep getting bombarded with on a daily basis, shouldn’t we all be out of a job?

Living the dream, kicking back on the beach, cocktail in hand while the machines do all the work for us. Every day now I am introduced to a new way that AI can make my job easier, more efficient and cost effective without any perceived drop in quality.

Take this blog post you are reading – AI could be doing this for me, while I watch daytime TV (Its not, I am writing it, (but AI could be writing that!)) Before we fall into an almighty chasm of an infinite loop, let me just reassure you, it’s me writing this, John (of sound mind and willing body, blah de blah). 

AI has got me thinking, we are at a precipice , a critical junction in our development as the human race. Sounds a bit dramatic doesn’t it, when all you want to do is automate some ad design?

Seriously though, all elements of my role as a marketing expert could now be enhanced with an AI tool.

• Strategy.
• Comms.
• Branding.
• Design.
• Reporting.

Not one day passes, in fact these days, not one hour passes and I don’t see a new AI tool to write content, design ads, build creative and automate reporting and refine.

Back to the precipice, why are these AI tools making me nervous? There is a fantastic book by Mo Gawdat called “Scary Smart” that outlines a potentially terrifying future of AI. Mo knows what he is talking about too, he was the Chief Business Officer at Google X, responsible for some of the first AI created by Google.

In this book Mo outlines the shift from “automation” to “ deep learning”, i.e. the point at which we enabled machines from being told what to do by following a set of instructions to being given the ability to make choices. We have passed “deep learning” and this Genie can never be put back in the bottle, computers now have the ability to decide but can they make moral decisions?

Take an example of a smart autonomous car – this device can see better, drive better and respond quicker than any human – but can it decide between a moral judgment avoiding a crash and as a result running over a child, or simply accepting that the crash is the lesser of two evils?

The prediction is that by 2029 , AI will be smarter than any human on the planet. This date might be closer than we think as the technology rapidly advances. At this point and with the development of AI we will not be able to control what AI does as it will be able to outsmart anyone in existence.

If history is anything to go by, our first interactions with AI did not end well. In 2016 Microsoft created an AI chatbot called “Tay”.  Tay was created to interact with humans and discuss issues and learn on Twitter. It was shut down within 24 hours for Tweeting racist and inflammatory Tweets.

Deep Blue was a computer designed to play chess, in 1997 it defeated the reigning World Chess Champion Gary Kasparov by four games to two. Shortly afterwards it was dismantled by IBM.

But both of the above examples had flaws. Tay was coerced and cajoled by the feverant Twitter audience to become corrupt, taking the worst of human conversation and joining in, Deep Blue had a programming issue which sent it into a loop, playing the same move (a killer move mind!) over and over again.

Mo Gawdat’s theory is that we are in the infancy of AI. In 2029 (or sooner) as soon as it becomes all powerful, we will be in the equivalent of AI’s teenage years. What do teenagers do? Rebel.

AI is constantly learning, adjusting, learning and adjusting again. Like a child its behaviour and responses are a reflection of its “upbringing”. If all it is learning are negative drivers like hate, violence and aggression at that cut off point when it becomes “super smart” it may choose to reflect those behaviours back at us.

Conversely, if it learns that small elements of the human race are negative but they are outweighed much more by positivity, then maybe it will turn out for the good. As it turns into “adulthood” AI may decide that the human race is worth saving, we are full of love, hope, compassion, brilliance, creativity, ingenuity  – maybe we are worth saving and AI can teach us a lesson? Problems can be solved with intelligence and conversation, not war. War is stupid and AI is not stupid….Food and water is in abundance, maybe AI can help us create a fairer system. 

In my opinion we are at the dawn of a new era, much like we were with the industrial revolution, the computer age, the Internet age, the new age of AI. 

ChatGPT is powerful, it’s fun, it’s amazing. Use it to make yourself more effective and reduce mundane tasks but remember, AI is learning from all of us, let’s give it a good upbringing in a happy and safe environment.

Full disclosure here, I did use some AI in this post, to create the image of the guy on the beach……

What do you think the future holds for AI?