“We should not be afraid of artificial intelligence”

Applications like ChatGPT have been proven to shake up the workplace with recent announcements from companies like IBM and BT, with thousands of jobs made redundant. However, Adrian Gregory, Europe’s top man at IT service provider Insight, thinks there is reason for optimism. he said in an interview with am working.

Nasdaq Corporation vision One of the major distributors of Microsoft applications in the worldwide business market. “I happened to be there for a meeting at Microsoft headquarters in February when they made a series of announcements about ChatGPT. Excitement was clearly in the air. One piece of news was followed by another,” says Gregory.

“Artificial intelligence, of course, has been around for a while, but what’s new is that applications are now more accessible to the general public. Most of the technologies that are currently being hotly discussed are not new from a purely technical point of view and have been known to experts for several years. It’s user experience And it’s new: Anyone can use ChatGPT now.”

What are the implications for the business world?

Adrian Gregory: “App development used to be 100 percent a specialized business. This is completely changing. We are going from specialized work on low code to no code at all. This means that you will be able to reprogram and reinvent business processes without all the IT knowledge you used to need” .

Will a company like Insight have less work as a result?

“I think more work, because more people in the company will have access to and work with communication software.”

Please give an example.

“Take the chat application Microsoft Teams. Most people in the workplace use it only for video chatting, but this platform can also be used to create links with all kinds of business intelligence applications, for example to generate sales reports.”

“We will see many forms of online collaboration in real time via Teams and AI, because AI makes everything easier. If you have an idea for a new product, you can immediately simulate the research and pre-production phase, and then see what it will look like.” Operational production and production cost estimation.

Job creation or destruction?

Should we be afraid of losing our jobs to AI?

I am optimistic about that. An older friend told me that when the pocket calculator came out, the biggest fear was that kids would get stupid because they wouldn’t do mental arithmetic anymore. It would have been a disaster. In the end it wasn’t so bad, but the kids had to learn other things, because some skills were no longer necessary. Until now, the world of education will have to adapt to the rise of artificial intelligence.”

According to some, generative AI, which is supposed to generate new knowledge, is actually not very good at creating new things. Technology is above all a very good copy of existing knowledge, is criticism.

Accurately. It can only use the resources it has. But what AI can do is speed up the process of human creation. A scientist will spend less time researching and creating reports and more time doing experiments in a laboratory. In this sense, AI does not eliminate the job of scientists Not at all. Technology only increases its possibilities.”

Not everyone is optimistic.

“I don’t think we should be afraid of it. What we need is regulation, so that there are no biases built into AI. A break, as suggested by Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak, among others, doesn’t sound like a good idea to me, but regulation is definitely necessary, because people Sometimes they believe everything they see. Without checking certain societal rules, AI can become dangerous.”

Will artificial intelligence lead to significant cost savings for businesses?

“Maybe, but I don’t think that’s the way to look at new technology. Many companies look more at opportunities that emerge than at potential cost reductions. A company could say, ‘Will automation and AI cut costs by 30 percent? ?.” But you could also say, “Let’s improve the customer experience with AI and thus improve our product.”

Will we see more cooperation and alliances between companies?

“I think so. B2B cooperation (Action to Action) experienced a boom a few years ago thanks to its APIs (connection points between applications, Mr. Dr.). The latest democratization of technology now opens the door to superior applications, which combine different functions. We’ve known for some time all-in-one apps for the great Chinese consumer. We expect the same for B2B.”

Metaverse

Which brings us smoothly to Metaverse. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, sees the companies working closely together in such a 3D internet of the future. Are you Believer or a non-believer?

I am a believer. Do you know the movie Lawn mower man? Maybe now I’m cheating on my age. A movie from the 90s that is worth watching. The main character starts living in a virtual world and gets into all kinds of trouble.”

“But I don’t see a dystopian future like in that movie. I instead see the metaverse as a useful tool for training and education using devices like HoloLens, for example for medical staff, security, the military or emergency services like the fire brigade. The immersive experience can teach them how to deal with different facts.

So the metaverse isn’t going to be about fun, but about practical applications?

Well, of course games will be an important part of it. But I’m particularly curious about business applications, for example augmented reality. I also expect more virtual meetings.”

The problem with the device is still there. 3D glasses are cumbersome.

“There really is still a long way to go. But you can imagine that at the end of the day we will no longer need a physical object to see, but only a device that is connected directly to your brain. I expect that the metaverse will eventually become part of our daily lives and help us through that life.”

(kg)