I've been thinking about what the CEO of arguably the most important and powerful company of our future said yesterday: "As intelligence gets integrated everywhere, we will all have superpowers on demand."1 This statement echoes Marc Andreessen's "Software is eating the world"2 vision of software's global impact. Building on that idea, I'd like to hazard an attempt at expressing AI's potential impact: AI will devour intelligence.
As AI excels in tasks requiring deep analysis, critical thinking, and strategy, we may see a big shift in the job market. Many analytical and strategic roles might get automated by AI, reshaping the future of white-collar work. For instance, industries like finance and law, that depend a lot on data analysis and pattern recognition, are already experiencing automation through AI algorithms that can perform complex tasks faster and more accurately than humans.
Consider the example of AI in medical diagnostics. In 2020, researchers developed an AI model that can detect breast cancer from mammograms with accuracy comparable to expert radiologists3. This not only speeds up the diagnostic process but also challenges the traditional roles of medical professionals.
On top of that, the rise of AI in creative fields such as digital content creation, music composition, and even generative art, shows that AI's impact goes beyond just analytical tasks. Tools like OpenAI's GPT models can generate human-like text, making us wonder what will happen to writers and journalists.
With these advancements in mind, we need to think about how society will adapt. My guess is education and job training will have to change to focus on the uniquely human skills that AI can't easily copy, such as emotional intelligence, ethics, and creative problem-solving.
