Hello fellow humans!

Matt's new book "Will AI Take My Job?" is available to read now and it's only $2.99 in the USA or $4.05 if you're in Canada.

I have included the Introduction Chapter to the book at the end of this short email...

Who is this book for?

• Employees, Freelancers, and Job Seekers
• Small Business Owners and Tradespeople
• Anyone who is curious about AI and why it's such a big deal all of a sudden
• People who want to know if AI is going to replace their job or their industry

It includes an explanation of why AI has exploded since the release of ChatGPT and generative AI. (Image creators, music makers, text-to-speech, digital avatars... get a basic understanding of AI to amaze your friends, your clients, and your boss.)

In the book, I explain how these complex systems function with the fewest technical terms possible - and why people think they could be dangerous.

And a look at more than two dozen industries and how AI is affecting them now as well as the next few years.

Sources of data and information included, and written by a real human, me!

Grab your copy now.

Introduction

2023 may become known in the future as the start of the “Age of AI.” But is this the beginning of the end, or the start of a golden age of humanity?

And what does this mean for you? That’s the big question.

Is AI going to “take” your job? 

The short answer is, “it depends.”

It depends what kind of work you do. It depends on how your work is regulated or how private the data is. It depends how much of your work is physically in-person and the environment where you do your job. There are other factors like quality of connectivity, access to reliable power, security of facilities, access to hardware specific to AI systems, and many more. 

The news telling you AI is going to “steal everyone’s job” isn’t helpful. It’s way more complicated than that. One thing is for sure, AI is going to change the workplace as we know it.

But just by picking up this book, you have significantly improved your chances of keeping your job, being more competitive in your business, or learning how to manage the “Age of AI” as it is now upon us.   

This book is a combination of my personal experiences working hands-on with AI platforms, early access to developing tech, speaking with groups and audiences about AI and productivity, talks from AI conferences, and surveys on the topics we will cover. 

You will walk away from reading this book with a vastly improved sense of the current state of AI, how companies and employees are approaching AI tools, how to best protect your future employment or business, and some wild predictions about the future that are sure to make you a hit at business gatherings.

I will let you know now that there will be some technical terminology scattered about in this book, but it is unavoidable in the discussion we need to have to determine if AI will take your job.

Let’s get back to the task at hand: talking about AI.

Seemingly out of nowhere, generative AI exploded on the scene in late 2022, but only gained mass adoption in 2023. 

It appeared in the wake of waning interest in Web3 and Cryptocurrency because of multi-billion dollar scandals and the lack of any day-to-day useful purpose in the eyes of the general population. But Web3 and blockchain is a discussion for another day.

Now, most information workers, students, artists, entrepreneurs, and marketers have heard of the most prominent AI systems: ChatGPT, Claude, Bard, Lambda, Jarvis, Stable Diffusion, Midjounrey, Eleven Labs, Dalle, Descript, and many others.

When it comes to the general population, the more educated people are, the more likely they are to have tried AI. Also, the younger people are or the higher their income, the more likely they are to have tried AI. 

In a May 2023 Pew Research survey, roughly half of US residents have heard of ChatGPT but less than 15% have tried it.

For this book, I am taking for granted that you have a very basic knowledge of AI and have at least tried using an AI program. If you have not, take a few moments to give some free ones a shot.

Try ChatGPT or Bard, or download Pi on your smartphone and chat with it a bit. Maybe ask it to make you a recipe that includes three items in your fridge, to write a song in the style of your favorite musician, or ask to create an engaging presentation about your job. 

Try an image generator. You can try using Midjourney or Dalle-2 to create an image. Make a unicorn in space or a group of dogs wearing business suits.

Maybe go to a site like Eleven Labs and type a sentence for an AI voice to read back to you. 

You need to have an idea of what AI does and how good it is now. And remember. This is the worst AI you will ever use. 

We will be talking about AI for productivity, how AI automation is threatening some industries, how AI Agents can handle entire projects, and AI Developers that can code applications. 

We also need to have a discussion about AI ethics. What does it mean to “ethically train” an AI system? What data is public, protected, or private? What does copyright mean in a generative AI world? 

And then, we’re going to look forward to the future and talk about how embedding robotics and sensory devices with multi-modal AI systems is going to create Autonomous workers. The robots of science fiction that are being developed as I write this.

Also, no discussion about the future would be complete without talking about AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) and the possibility of creating a Superintelligence. What are the threats and benefits to humanity? How will AI companies, advocacy groups, and political groups make future systems safe, or “aligned” with the goals of humanity?

The future of AI is the collision of many technologies and discoveries. It’s been said that in 2023, there was more advancement in AI as there has been in the previous 20 years. AI is seeing truly exponential growth.

“In a properly automated and educated world, then, machines may prove to be the true humanizing influence. It may be that machines will do the work that makes life possible and that human beings will do all the other things that make life pleasant and worthwhile ”

• Isaac Asimov, Robot Visions

Grab your copy to continue reading.

~Matt