If you read only one thing about AI/LLMs this week, make it this:
July 21, 2023
If you only read TWO things about AI/LLM this week, make it these from Insider:
Point: GenZ is headed for a career calamity by Ed Zitron
Counterpoint: AI could supercharge the GenZ takeover by Alexandra York and Jacob Zinkula
1. GenAI is good at many tasks that have been traditionally given to entry-level employees as a way to “earn their stripes”
- Companies have shown little to no interest in training junior workers, preferring to let them learn on the job, so if menial tasks can be automated away, it will be increasingly difficult to identify and develop the next generation of managers.
- At best, younger workers will be tasked with feeding and caring for AI systems, and dealing with the uneven output they produce.
2. On the other hand, Gen Z is proving much more willing to adopt and experiment with GenAI tools than older workers
- This applies both to menial tasks like content production, outreach, etc. as well as more strategic work that is often reserved for senior employees.
- This allows younger workers to both show their skill in getting the expected grunt work done, but also to leapfrog the traditional hierarchy and pick up more interesting tasks and problems that would usually require years of apprenticeship.
- This is an extremely confusing time to enter the job market. Managers have traditionally underinvested in early career workers, expecting the cream to rise to the top, and the impulse to automate may reduce opportunities to get a foot in the door.
- However, the eagerness (and lower cost) of younger workers will remain attractive enough to companies that they will manufacture new roles to keep their workforces fresh. Mid-career specialists and AI skeptics may find themselves squeezed by younger competition who doesn’t know to wait their turn.
- This is really a problem of role definition and teaming — what’s the best way to put together a team of people to produce a great outcome for our business, and what skills do I need in those team members? Young employees in particular will transform their employers with LLMs, with or without the employer’s permission.