AI vs. Humanity

All the way back in October of 2018, I wrote a piece called “Change what you are doing today so that robots can’t do it tomorrow.” In that piece, I urged everyone to ponder the question Can technology assist, and therefore devalue what I am trying to do?

Today, barely five years later, the answer to that question for everyone, is a resounding yes. 

As an entrepreneur, I have been on the front lines of technological advancements in business for many years. However, the rise of AI is not just another technological advancement. It is a fundamental shift in the way we work and live that we have never seen before. We are on the cusp of a major change that will have a profound impact on our society, and it is important that we brace ourselves for the unprecedented changes that lie ahead.

Think I’m kidding? Chat GPT entirely drafted that last paragraph.

My concern is that AI is not only going to eliminate jobs, but learning opportunities. I started my career in sales. It wasn’t a ground-breaking role, and it didn’t change the world, but it did teach me a lot. That role was all about trial and error. I ground my way through cold call after cold call until I found a technique that worked for me. I learned social engineering, and I learned that if I worked just a little bit harder and a little bit longer than everyone else that the results would compound into a truly significant advantage. That job put me in the right mindspace for advancement. 

Now, imagine that AI completely eliminates entry level sales jobs. Chat GPT can draft emails, handle automated calling, and can correspond with top-of-funnel contacts. We will need sales professionals to work with AI, but they will need to be working at a higher level in order to coach the system into providing the outputs they want to see. But how can someone become a high level sales professional if there are no more entry level positions left? Alarmingly, it simply is not possible.

The advent of AI leaves us with a bunch of humans with with obsolete skill sets. We are frogs boiling in water, failing to notice the rise in temperature until it is already too late.

Every day I sit in my office on Wilshire Boulevard and see Ubers go by without drivers, and watch food delivery happen without a delivery person. The unskilled jobs are already gone, and skilled jobs are next on the chopping block. The impact of AI on the job market is already being felt across all industries, and it is only going to accelerate in the coming years.

This is not just a matter of jobs being lost. The rise of AI will fundamentally change the way we work, and the skills that are needed to succeed. It will require a new way of thinking about education and training, and a new approach to workforce development. This is a challenge that we have never faced before, and it is important that we recognize the scale of the challenge that lies ahead.

There has not been a single instance in history, where great feats have been achieved without an extreme amount of hard work. Artists, nations, infrastructure, philosophy - it has all required sacrifice and perseverance. But that is shifting right under our noses. We must recognize the scale of this challenge and start preparing ourselves for the unprecedented changes that lie ahead. It is important that we start thinking about how we can adapt to this new reality.

The majority of skills will be obsolete in 20 years. In order to save yourself from being at the whim of someone else’s decisions, start to prepare yourself today.