The AI Revolution: Who Should Be Worried?
As a writer in the tech industry, I interact with AI daily for research and grammar reviews and with the tools I use for work, such as Slack, GitBook, and Atlassian. AI is also deeply integrated into the products and platforms of the companies I collaborate with.
Initially, as AI gained popularity for content generation, many assumed that writers would soon become obsolete. However, I recognized AI’s limitations: it struggles with creativity and relies on stereotypes and clichés of the content it ingests. I wasn’t worried about replacing writers; AI cannot create documentation for a product or feature it hasn't seen before. AI is sentient; it relies on existing information to provide the best response.
If you use AI to help you find an answer on a website, operating system, or app, it is common for it to suggest clicking links or visiting menu items that don’t exist because those links and menu items DID exist on the websites, older operating system versions, and apps that matched your query.
What I did find, though, was how easily it could replicate the wheel, should you want that.
I, a person with no computer engineering background, could use AI to easily build a website by just giving a URL, create macros to improve software and analyze large data sets quicker than a human could write code to do the same job.
AI rapidly transforms programming by automating code generation, debugging, and optimization. Tools like GitHub Copilot and ChatGPT can write entire snippets, explain complex errors, and enhance code quality. In web and app development, no-code and low-code platforms simplify UI design and functionality, while in data science and cybersecurity, AI accelerates data analysis, automates model creation, and identifies vulnerabilities.
Parents in the tech industry are starting to recognize this. A Wall Street Journal article highlighted a growing trend: tech professionals are steering their children away from technology careers and toward the arts. These parents, having experienced the intense pressure and volatility of the tech world, see creative fields as offering more fulfillment, stability, and balance. They also believe that artistic skills- critical thinking and emotional intelligence- will remain valuable regardless of industry shifts.
"AI will take many single-task, single-domain jobs away." KAI-FU LEE, chairman and CEO of Sinovation Ventures.Of course, AI’s impact isn’t limited to tech. It will touch every field, from education to firefighting. Some jobs are at greater risk than others, and you should consider what that means for you while you still have time to adapt.
Change is coming fast.