"Idiot's Guide to Artificial Intelligence"
Was AI used in Google lay-offs?
Google lay-offs steered by AI?
I recently published an online article regarding huge lay-offs by the tech-giant, Google. In it was this innocuous sentence:
“It was also clear that those laid-off were not necessarily the poorest performers in terms of the performance appraisal parameters, but rather picked up presumably by an Artificial Intelligence (AI)- driven algorithm, trained to identity the roles and functions that were no longer a priority.”
This article triggered quite a lively and a multi-pronged debate on the various social-media platforms, but one dominant aspect was whether Artificial Intelligence (AI) would trigger off a series of unending avalanches of lay-offs, since many roles, currently performed by humans, would be taken over by the machines. The baby-boomers (born between 1946 to 1964), including those belonging to the Generation X (born between 1965 to 1980), generally equated AI with fancy robots that would literally take over the tasks that have traditionally been performed by humans. The future scenario, to them, was still vague and perhaps a few more years away before this would happen.
AI Apps are amazingly simple
As technology goes, I am virtually a novice. My knowledge of AI and ML (Machine Learning) is literally zilch but I did learn, during the last few weeks, a few ropes from my son, a US-based techie, who has been playing around with a few of the ultra-new open-source AI programs and application.
Dream Studio
The first is Dream Studio, the basic version of which is free (beta.dreamstudio.ai). All you required is to type in a simple prompt in ordinary English, and it would return the images/ photos that it generated. For instance, I typed in: “Sundar Pichai, outside Google HQ, Mountainview, California, surrounded by angry, highly-qualified employees, who had been fired recently.” It returned the following images.
I added to this prompt: “Show more protests” and the following images popped up.
What needs to be stated here is that is NOT equivalent to a “Google Image Search”. Such search would have only fetched those digital images that were already there on the internet. If there were none, one would get no results or irrelevant results. Dream Studio and other similar applications do not trawl across the internet to fish out the relevant stuff from the existing images, but are able to synthesize, or hallucinate, images by distilling out the text and image data already existing on the internet. More likely, from humongous amount of data stored in a condensed format from their proprietary servers, and churning it with their increasingly sophisticated ML algorithms, so create new image/ content as per your command. Thus for all intents and purposes, these images are absolutely new creations. In fact, when these applications are utilized to bring out works of art, you could easily claim a copyright[1], because this image has been “created by you”. It is, however, too early in the day to be able to find universally-accepted position in this regard.
ChatGPT — “Ask Me Anything”
The next, of course is Chat GPT, which takes simple inputs and gives you almost instantaneous, real-time answer, just like an all-knowing sage. Keeping in view the prevailing scenario, I input: “Seven points of advice for a tech- professional in USA, who has been laid-off recently and unexpectedly, along with many others.” Lo and behold, the screen shots below tell the story. I wonder whether experts in the field would be able to add anything significantly to this.
To clarify and may be at the cost of repetition, it must be stated that the AI/ ML Program, Chat GPT has “created” this response, by dipping into its humongous database and, of course, utilizing their open-source AI/ ML algorithm/ program. This response did NOT earlier exist in this form on the internet — in other words, googling this input with suitable modifications would not have, in all probability, thrown as good search results as this output.
Incorporating your existing images into new photos and videos
This is just the starting. Programs and Apps exist which can be input with a dozen odd images of, say your pet, and then a simple prompt like “my pet walking in front of Eifel Tower” would have create and return photo-realistic results. Don’t believe it? Click on the link[2] below to see how my son did the same for my wife’s pet Chihuahua, Oreo. I was flabbergasted at the results. It’s literally incredible.
Bilawal Sidhu on LinkedIn: #artificialintelligence #machinelearning #aiart #google #dreambooth…
I've been going back to this depth2img post that Bilawal Sidhu posted a few days ago because it's accelerated the way…
Will machines replace human-beings?
Now, to the all important question: Will the latest advances in Artificial Intelligence lead to huge job losses and lay-offs among content creators, copy-writers, free-lance authors and artists?
My take is that advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) may lead to some job losses and layoffs among content creators, copywriters, freelance authors, and artists. AI-powered tools can automate certain tasks that were previously done by humans. AI can also create new job opportunities and industries.
However, many jobs in the content creation field are based on creativity, which is difficult to replicate with AI. AI can assist in tasks such as editing and formatting, which can free up time for content creators to focus on more creative aspects of their work.
How to leverage AI in traditional professions?
This being so, can these latest tools be utilized by content creators, copy-writers, free-lance authors and artists to become more efficient and effective? Yes. This really a golden opportunity. This is my set of suggestions:
i. Use AI-powered writing tools to generate ideas, headlines, and outlines for new content.
ii. Utilize AI-based grammar and style checkers to improve the quality and readability of your writing.
iii. Use AI-powered tools to research and gather information for your content, to improve its accuracy and relevance.
iv. Use AI-powered tools to optimize your content for search engines and social media platforms.
v. Use AI-generated images and videos to supplement your written content and make it more engaging.
vi. Use AI-powered tools to identify and analyze trends in your industry or niche, to stay ahead of the competition.
vii. Leverage AI to automate repetitive tasks such as formatting, data entry, and research, freeing up time for more creative work.
viii. Use AI to generate personalized content for different target audiences, to increase engagement and conversion rates.
ix. Utilize AI-based tools to generate captions, subtitles, and translations for your content, to reach a global audience.
x. Explore AI-based platforms for distribution and monetization of your content, to increase your income potential.
Reinvent and Re-equip yourself
AI tools have arrived and your peer group or competing personnel might already be using it. If you are in an area of work, where these tools are already available, remember a person will not be rendered redundant by AI, but rather by another person using AI. These tools — super-easy to use — can increase your efficiency and effectiveness by an order of magnitude. So, if you are not going to ride the wave, the “voyage of your (professional) life shall be bound in shallows and in miseries.” You don’t have an excuse that you are not tech-savvy — if you are savvy enough to use google search and Gmail, you are more than qualified to use these newly-landed tools. They are free!
DISCLAIMER: I relied extensively on ChatGPT in answering the last two questions. Can I even claim the authorship of this article?
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The author superannuated as Special Chief Secretary, Punjab on 31st July, 2021, after nearly 37 years of service in the IAS.
He can be reached on kbs.sidhu@gmail.com
[1] Of course, one would have to refer to the terms of use for a more rigorous legal answer.
[2] (Try: you may be required to be logged in to LinkedIn)