Ready or Not, HERE COMES AI

By Dave Trecker

You can’t do much these days without running into artificial intelligence (AI), a boon or a bane – or more likely both. I counted 8 articles on AI in a recent Wall Street Journal, and I probably missed a few.

The big story recently has been the frightening fact that AI is displacing American workers, stealing jobs, particularly routine ones that can be done more efficiently and more cheaply by smart machines.

But there’s another side to AI. A more encouraging side. It’s providing huge benefits. And not just to scientists.

My daughter, a classically trained lyric soprano who became an MBA to earn a living, tells of positioning her company to deal with banks in India. She enlisted AI to help and got a promotional piece that was terrible. She prompted AI, received a better write-up, and after 4 or 5 iterations got a piece that was really good. “It saved a lot of time,” she said.

AI has become a big deal, turning into what some think will become global survival – bare-knuckles competition between the U.S. and China. “Right now the U.S. is lucky,” says the WSJ. “We have the best chips.” But it won’t always be that way.

To succeed over the long haul, the WSJ says, we need a U.S. friendly regulatory system and massive amounts of power for our data centers – both green energies, high-carbon energy and everything in between. We’re not there yet. But we’re getting close.

And some pretty exciting stuff is starting to emerge. For example, AI routinely writes music, prize-winning songs. Ten AI songs have charted recently, according to Billboard, ranging from tear-jerking rhythm and blues to rockabilly.

“It’s scary how good AI music creation is getting,” artistic manager Jeremy Maciak was quoted as saying.

Using text-to-image AI programs, we dummies at home can now create vast libraries of pictures, nutty stuff like panthers wearing underwear and lightning coming from church pulpits.

Birthday cards will never be the same.

Not long ago PPG chemists, unable to devise a fast-drying clear overlay for automobile paints, turned to AI which in no time delivered an effective coating. Other AI-assisted formulas are in the pipeline.

Judges, we are told, now use AI to summarize legal findings, draft opinions, conduct legal research. It’s early days in the courthouse and accuracy can’t always be counted on. But gradually AI is gaining acceptance.

In an interesting offshoot, Mercy, a new film, depicts a murder suspect whose case is being heard, not by a real person, but by an AI generated judge. No kidding. Artificial intelligence is hearing the case.

I’ve not seen the film, but I’m told it really grabs you.

Less sensational is everyday shopping made easy by AI chatbots. Amazon uses “Rufus” and Walmart uses “Sparky.” Sit at home and crank through your shopping lists. No, I haven’t used it. I’m not there yet.

Finally, there’s “AI and the Fountain of Youth,” a story about Stanford researchers harnessing AI to predict outcomes of medical treatments of certain diseases. For example, a shingles vaccine was projected to reduce the risk of cognitive decline later in life. My wife and I, always hopeful, got the vaccine last year.

We’re certainly not alone in trying AI. A majority of American adults report using AI at least several times a week – younger folks more often than oldsters, men more often than women.

The growth has been phenomenal. According to the Pew Research Center, usage has gone from near zero to 62% in just three years.

And, interestingly, some of the biggest AI innovations have come not from tech giants or big research labs, but from users at work or at home. The little guy is one of the biggest drivers.

What’s the take-home message? AI is not just stealing jobs. It’s also helping to reshape the American workplace. We’re fortunate to be part of it.

Dr. Trecker is a chemist and retired Pfizer executive living in Naples.