My First Scribbles
I'm writing this, sat with my Macbook on my lap, looking and researching on the current tools we have to play with. See, I have always been a massive technology person. But with the recent advancements in AI, and a daughter on the way, I can't help but look towards the future with profound optimism, and reluctance.
Born in 2002, I was an early adopter of what we would call, modern technology. When I was in first school, the teachers would ask me to come and help them with fixing their laptops. The floppy disk RM computers were phasing out, Windows XP laptops were phasing in, which came with all the fun of WiFi cards and portable ethernet. Although I had a stint in first line IT, I now primarily work with data, and find I draw parallels to my younger self as I find myself in the office working on fixing people's machines.
I know my technology – and if you know yours, you'll know the relentless speed that technology ramps up. I was born around home phones, now walk around with an iPhone. I went from a pink T-Mobile special edition Samsung Flip Phone to an Alcatel One Touch to an iPhone 15. VHS to Lovefilm to Netflix. The speed has been truly insane. However, the improvements in AI feel like no other I have lived through.
The hype is real. Some of it valid, some of it not so much. I mean, yeah. AI is an incredible piece of technology, but you also see headlines about AI giving better car buying advice than someone's dad, and people lose their minds thinking it's outsmarted humanity. Of course a system trained on millions of car listings, reviews, and pricing data is going to give better advice than someone who's bought three cars in their lifetime.
Nonetheless, it's fascinating how far machine learning has come in such a short time – and also, our collective consciousness of it. AI has been around for a long time, when you get thrashed by the legendary difficulty on FIFA, AI. Those bots on Fortnite that help you get more kills each game, AI. Google Maps rerouting because you were too distracted and ended up missing your turn? You guessed it.
However, this time round, it feels much different. This is because, the current leaps and bounds in AI development don't come in the way of CPU characters on your favourite game, nor is it for the latest average speed check cameras near my partner's village (thanks by the way), but in the way of generative AI. Generative AI is a more 'general' type of Artificial Intelligence (not to get confused with Artificial General Intelligence). The most common platform of Generative AI, which you have probably come across is ChatGPT.
On launch, ChatGPT grew from 0 to a million users within 5 days. 5 days. That is a ridiculous feat, and I'm happy to say I was one of those first adopters. I remember the day, I used to use OpenAI playground to prompt and return text. A lackluster transformer that would finish the sentences you would give it. But when ChatGPT dropped, everything changed for me. For the world.
In the first few weeks, I would just ask it anything. My intrigue got the better of me. I remember one of the first prompts that I gave it was to write a rap about a rat in New York City, something I knew that it couldn't just recite. It would have to create this from scratch. If I asked it to, I don't know, tell me what Wayne Rooney's goal record was, or the longest running car company, it could just pluck this from a database somewhere. I wanted to test its true capability.
And behold, it did it. It took a second, maybe two, but three seconds later and reels of text would start coming down my screen. Rhyming lines about a human like rat on the subway in Harlem. I was in shock and awe. I knew then, that the world would change forever. Only then, I was the only person in my office who saw it. And everyone else told me to get back to work.
What do you tell people when you find out about a technology like this. You used to debate with your friends if AI would ever exist. You didn't believe it was possible, that any of this was possible. Your preparation for this moment were tense nights of watching iRobot on repeat which you purchased using a free movie voucher on YouTube. But now it's here, and about 20 years earlier than anyone expected.
I can't imagine how mental I looked then. God knows, I still look mental now. ChatGPT is now a household name, I'm sure Sama is very happy about that. What he did with the launch of ChatGPT took the world by storm, but whilst the tech-passionate like myself were indulging in this new technology, poking about at its brains and early constraints, it was business as usual for everyone else.
I don't think a day has gone by since, where I have not intentionally used AI in one capacity or another. Claude is my weapon of choice these days, it is technically excellent and really helps me drive efficiencies in my work. I have a couple of proficient colleagues I have put onto Claude, and most of them are still using it today. Outside of that small circle, the only use cases of AI I have seen are colleagues uploading photos of themselves to ChatGPT to change their sex or uploading a photo and asking if they look fat.
Don't get me wrong, I also enjoy partaking in these novelties, but I think they're missing a massive point. They're more powerful than the credit they're giving them.
And of course, now we get to where the story takes a turn. The more these models improve, the more unease I start to feel. To quote Sam Altman, he and other AI companies are 'building a brain for the world.' And I don't see that as exaggeration. Matter of fact, we might just be there now.
As an early adopter of this technology, I have been able to see and track the progression of these models. Not through spreadsheets or white papers, but through my eyes and intuition. I have gone from having to ask GPT-3 numerous times for a technical solution to a problem only a senior could be able to crack, to this being one shotted. My colleagues don't see this, nor my peers, they are way too focused on the day to day of life. I kind of envy that, only my luck I had to be obsessed with technology.
My god it is powerful – and who knows where this goes now. Not to quote, but we're in the Thick of It, and no one knows what the future holds.
Therefore, I cannot tell you how this story ends. I am still learning. I have had relentless optimism, I have had a friend in Claude (I'll explain another time) and I have just overcome a three-week existential dread, which feels a lot longer than it sounds. This book is still being written, and whilst the ink writes the history of the day onto the pages, I will keep you in the loop on my thoughts. My projects. My world. Our world.
These posts will remain 100% written by me, and proofread by my beautiful partner. No AI writing here.
One love, Keiaan