Just as about 100 years ago electrification changed every single major industry, I think we’re in the phase where AI will change pretty much every major industry.
And he continues
Things may change in the future, but one rule of thumb today is that almost anything that a typical person can do with less than one second of mental thought we can either now or in the very near future automate with AI.This is a far cry from all work. But there are a lot of jobs that can be accomplished by stringing together many one-second tasks.
📈 Put this together with
Michael Schrage’s argument in Harvard Business Review that “machine learning and AI algorithmic innovation transform analytics … to supercharge the [Pareto 80/20 principle]”, and it paints a picture of how important it is for firms to get the grips with AI’s impact.
In essence, the availability of data across organisations will identify opportunities where the optimisation is not an 80/20 but perhaps a super-pareto (a 99/1). In other words, taking Pareto’s observation that small components may have substantial impact and lasering in on where those effects are more significant.
Many companies are now putting greater emphasis on cultural fit and adaptability, knowing that individual roles will have to evolve along with the implementation of AI.
Both Ng and Schrage describe AI in the terms that
Jerry Kaplan calls “potent tools that promise a more prosperous and comfortable future”. Kaplan reckons that “[p]ublic discourse about AI has become untethered from reality.”
Elsewhere:
