Why generative AI is an extraordinary new power source
Cliff Justice is the 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 U.S. Leader of Enterprise Innovation. He and his group focus on identifying, developing, and deploying the next generation of technologies and solutions for 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 and its clients. Here he explores what the C-suite should know about generative artificial intelligence (AI)鈥攊ts impact on business and our lives.
Something unexpected happened recently when I asked GPT-4 about a topic that I鈥檝e been reading about. The chatbot lectured me鈥攁nd then apologized. It was a surreal human-machine interaction that wasn鈥檛 possible just a few months ago. The moment signaled to me that generative AI is here to stay. And it鈥檚 evolving fast.
Gen AI is the opportunity鈥攁nd the imperative鈥攐f our lifetime.
Generative AI creates its own content rather than responding to or analyzing existing content. This net-new content can be mind-blowing鈥攍ike the AI-generated video of Bill Gates and Socrates debating the pros and cons of AI. This technology will transform every part of our lives, including what we believe to be true and the heuristics of how we think. Generative AI isn鈥檛 only a technological turning point. It鈥檚 a cultural flashpoint.
. Sixty-five percent think the technology will have a high or extremely high impact on their firm in the next 3 to 5 years. And 60 percent say their company is 1 to 2 years away from implementing its first generative AI solution. Yet many executives haven鈥檛 fully grasped what generative AI is exactly, that it鈥檚 profoundly different than a bot scraping the internet1.
77%
of executives think that generative AI will have a bigger impact on broader society than any other emerging technology in the next 3 to 5 years.
I believe that generative AI is the greatest technological disruption of our lifetimes. It is our wheel. Our steam engine. Our light bulb. It鈥檚 advancing so fast that GPT-4鈥檚 jaw-dropping capability will seem primitive in months, not years. And this mega disruption is happening amid great geopolitical volatility.
It鈥檚 never been more important for the C-suite to manage change well, and many leaders haven鈥檛 had to do it at such speed, scale, or with such consequence. But I encourage leaders to be bold. Audacious even. It鈥檚 essential to finding the most impactful way to use AI. That鈥檚 why it鈥檚 time to ask a critical question: How do we use generative AI now that we have it?
Today鈥檚 generative AI technology builds on decades of natural language processing and machine learning research and innovation. But history will look back on November 2022 as a milestone moment in the story2. It鈥檚 when OpenAI put a natural language processing chatbot into the hands of anyone with internet connectivity.
The pace of adoption was unprecedented. ChatGPT had 1 million users 5 days after its launch. It took Instagram 5 months, Facebook 10 months, Twitter 2 years, and Netflix 3.5 years to reach this threshold3. The irony? ChatGPT couldn鈥檛 report on its own incredible feat. The model鈥檚 knowledge cut off in September 2021.
The generative AI arms race among big tech companies and a sea of smaller disruptors has since gone into overdrive. Generative AI is the talk of popular media and tech luminaries. Bill Gates called it 鈥渢he most important technology since the graphical user interface.鈥�4听Google鈥檚 CEO Sundar Pichai told听60 Minutes听that it 鈥渋s more profound than the invention of fire or electricity.鈥� At the same time, the 鈥済odfather of AI鈥� Geoffrey Hinton left Google concerned that about the consequences of letting Pandora out of the box5.
The C-suite wants clarity amid contradictions like these. They want to know if they鈥檙e watching yet another hype cycle that will fizzle out, or something profoundly different. They want to understand the existential impact that generative AI could have on their business. And they want insights into what it means for their existing technology and talent investments. Yet there aren鈥檛 definitive answers.
Think of generative AI as a new power source. It鈥檚 intellectual electricity that will change how we analyze information and develop insights from data. Like any power source, the value isn鈥檛 in the power itself. It鈥檚 in how it鈥檚 applied.听
Like new power sources fueled the industrial revolutions, generative AI will fuel an intelligence revolution. One with exponential impact.听But there鈥檚 a catch. Physicist Albert Bartlett argues that 鈥淗umans鈥� greatest shortcoming is the inability to understand the exponential function.鈥� If you believe Bartlett, living through exponential change as we are today is essentially living through change that our brains can鈥檛 comprehend.
Generative AI is pushing leaders to look at all aspects of their business differently鈥攊ndustry dynamics, business models, operating models, competitors, and talent. It鈥檚 forcing them to make consequential decisions despite significant uncertainty. There鈥檚 one thing that the C-suite can be certain of: generative AI鈥檚 extraordinary power comes from what humans bring to it, from human-machine collaboration. And the promise is in how generative AI will augment the workforce.
96%
of executives are getting their information about generative AI from either social media or news articles and press releases.
Generative AI raises complex questions about trust, ethics, and machine consciousness just to name a few. Like other emerging technologies, it comes with challenges, but it can also propel solutions forward in so many areas鈥攈ealthcare, education, human productivity, and more. Just imagine the impact when we can combine it with quantum computing.
At 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 we鈥檙e prioritizing trusted AI as we accelerate AI-powered solutions across our firm and for our clients. One of the ways that we鈥檙e addressing this is through听. It鈥檚 helping clients manage the unique nature of AI security threats in real time.
While people鈥檚 expectations for this technology may ultimately exceed reality, generative AI is a big part of a world that鈥檚 changing fast. Right before our eyes. I encourage leaders to start experimenting with it. Do what I did. Get curious. Ask questions. Engage. You might not get an apology, but I suspect that you鈥檒l end up agreeing with me that generative AI is here to stay.
A similar version of this first appeared in MLR Media.
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