Ep 123: Will AI Be More Impactful Than The Internet?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet are two technological revolutions that have shaped the modern world. While the Internet has already transformed industries, opening up new opportunities and connecting people across the globe, the question arises: will AI surpass the impact of the Internet? In this article, we will explore the potential of AI and its implications for businesses and decision-makers.

Unleashing the Power of AI:

AI is not just a buzzword; it is revolutionizing the way we live and work. Companies like OpenAI are aiming for astronomical figures in annual revenue, showcasing the massive potential of this technology. With AI systems already augmenting human intelligence, we are witnessing the birth of a new era.

Understanding Generative AI:

Many people write off generative AI because they don’t fully comprehend its capabilities. Unlike the Internet, which was relatively easy to understand, generative AI poses unique challenges. Ethical implications and concerns about job security often deter businesses from embracing this transformative technology.

Misconceptions and Realities:

A common misconception is that AI will solely replace humans in the workforce. However, the reality is that AI systems can augment human intelligence, enabling us to achieve more than we ever deemed possible. AI agents, capable of interacting and sharing information in the absence of human intervention, are becoming increasingly popular.

Changing the Meaning of Intelligence:

While the Internet served as a new platform for sharing information, AI is changing the definition of intelligence itself. Understanding and harnessing the potential of AI is essential for businesses to stay ahead in the evolving landscape. OpenAI, with its impressive valuation and lofty revenue goals, is pioneering this transformation.

Preparing for the Impact:

The head of the SEC, Gary Gensler, predicts that AI will cause a major financial crash in the 2020s or 2030s. While this forecast may sound alarming, it emphasizes the need for businesses to evaluate the potential risks and benefits associated with AI implementation. Striving for a comprehensive understanding of this transformative technology is essential.

Conclusion:

AI is not merely the latest technological trend but a force that will reshape the world as we know it. While the Internet has undeniably had a profound impact on society, AI holds the potential to surpass it. It is crucial for decision-makers and business owners to stay informed, embrace the transformative power of AI, and navigate its ethical implications to unlock a future of limitless possibilities. Together, let us harness the potential of AI to shape a brighter tomorrow.

Topics Covered in This Episode

1. AI vs. the Internet
2. Understanding Generative AI
3. Misunderstanding of Generative AI
4. AI and Job Displacement

Podcast Transcript

Jordan Wilson [00:00:16]:

Will AI be more impactful than the Internet? It’s something that I read about it all the time. I hear other people talking about it. People ask a lot of questions, so I wanted to talk about that today on everyday AI. Thank you for joining us. My name is Jordan Wilson, and I’m your host. And We’re gonna talk about that and a lot more. But if this is your first time, thank you for joining us. This is a daily livestream podcast and free daily newsletter To help everyday people like me and you, not just understand AI, but how we can all actually leverage it.

Daily AI news

Jordan Wilson [00:00:50]:

Alright. So and if you’re joining me live, thank you. Couple couple technical difficulties this morning, but we’re we’re ready to get going. So before we talk about if AI will be more impactful than the Internet, and Guess what? It will be. But before we get there, I first wanted to talk about what’s going on in the world of AI news. Alright. So, OpenAI is eyeing a $1,300,000,000 year in annual revenue. So Recent reports are showing that, OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, has reportedly said that, monthly revenue right now is more than and $100,000,000, and the company is targeting, $1,300,000,000 in annual revenue this year.

Jordan Wilson [00:01:36]:

So this comes after some recent reports valued OpenAI at more than $90,000,000,000. So, very, very large valuation for a company that is, kind of still new, at at least when it comes to commercial products. Alright. Next piece of news. Some former employees of Neuralink, are speaking now about the risks. So in a new article in Vox, some, former employees of Neuralink. The Neuralink is Elon Musk companies, which is developing a brain chip, to implement, to help people, with paralysis. That’s at least what, They’re saying, you know, kind of the, the major use case for, but to actually implant a brain chip to help people with paralysis.

Jordan Wilson [00:02:22]:

So the technology could obviously, improve the quality of life for millions of people, but it also carries a lot of risk. So Neuralink recently got FDA approval to run clinical trials Inhumans. And now, you know, former companies, at the, com former employees at Neuralink are sounding the alarm, because as tech is getting closer to trials, you know, former employers are now saying that the tech can be dangerous, and it is unnecessarily Invasive. Alright. Our 3rd story of the day is that, AI is going to cause a financial crash, And it’s unavoidable. So that is recent messaging from the head of the SEC, which is, the US Securities and Exchange Commission. So, the head of the SEC, Gary Gensler, said in a recent interview that it is nearly unavoidable that the that AI will cause a major and Financial crash, either later in, in the 20 twenties or early in the 20 thirties. So within A decade, we are now hearing the head of the SEC say it is essentially unavoidable that AI will cause a financial crash.

Jordan Wilson [00:03:38]:

So, some some big news here this morning, and, thank you. Thank you everyone for joining us. I know we probably have some, Some weird tech glitches. So, if you’re joining us live, that’s okay. Still, what are your thoughts? And let’s get back to the topic at hand. Will AI be more impactful than the Internet? I’d love to hear what what you all think, and I’ll try to share some of your comments. But I thought we’d get, this this week started off with some hot takes. And let me just go ahead and answer.

Comparing AI to the Internet

Jordan Wilson [00:04:13]:

And, you know, you can probably guess, my answer, but I wanna provide some some reasoning. But, yes, Artificial intelligence will be much more impactful than the Internet at large. Alright. So let’s let’s first, let’s talk stats first. Right? Before I before I give you some hot takes and, You know, maybe, look into the future a little bit. I always like bringing stats. Okay. So I wanna look at 2 different kind of large-scale studies.

Jordan Wilson [00:04:51]:

Alright? Both done by large consulting companies and, Financial institutions. Alright. So the first one looked at the history of kind of the Internet and what it meant to, the GDP. Right? So for the amount of money we produce as a company. So this was a report from McKinsey, And it essentially showed that, you know, the Internet now contributes Or, sorry. The Internet now constitutes about 3.4% of the global GDP. Right. But that’s after 30 years.

Jordan Wilson [00:05:32]:

So after 30 years, roughly, you know, we’re we’re coming up on about 30 years of, the Internet being available to the general public. So it took about 30 years for the Internet to constitute about 3.4 Percent of the global GDP. Alright. So now let’s look at another study, and this one from Goldman Sachs. So this one is saying that generative AI in its 1st 10 years is expected to constitute about 7% of the global GDP. Alright? So we’re talking about One third of the time, AI is expected to be about twice as impactful. Alright. Let me let me just recap that again.

Jordan Wilson [00:06:30]:

30 years of the Internet, and it constitutes about 3.4% Essentially of what we produce. Right? We’re generative AI. It is projected to be in the 1st 10 years to constitute 7%. So a third of the time, twice as impactful as the Internet. Right? And it’s also important. You know? Like, who’s making these studies? You know? Who’s who’s giving us this information? You know, I think management consultants in general Initially wrote off AI because maybe they saw it as a threat to their business model. You know? Everyone said, oh, You know, generative AI means you’re gonna have a McKinsey in your pockets. But now all of these management consultant companies and banks financial institutions, They’ve all made multibillion dollar investments into the generative AI technologies and AI technologies in, in general Because I think they all misunderstood it about what generative AI is and how impactful it can be.

The Internet’s impact vs AI’s impact

Jordan Wilson [00:07:38]:

So so how much more impactful will generative AI be than the Internet? Well, Let me explain a couple things too. I’ve I’ve I’ve lived on the Internet most of my life. Right. I, you know, even when I was 12 years old, I I I got a paper out, and bought my 1st computer Probably when I was, you know, about 12 years old, so that would have been in the mid nineties. Right? So so right after the Internet came out, I’ve always been a dork, Saved up my money, bought a computer, you know, finally got online. So I’ve been I’ve been online, right, for the majority of of my life. Right. And I think the Internet has helped us share human intelligence.

Jordan Wilson [00:08:25]:

Right? But the Internet did not create anything new on its own. It’s just a new road to share intelligence. Right? So let’s look at AI because AI is changing what intelligence means. Alright. Even our current systems are pushing human intelligence. And now we have AI agents as well, right, that that are just starting to, you know, kind of come into popularity After they were probably a little a little too early, early on. But now now we have AI agents, which are essentially If you think of, multiple AIs interacting with each other and sharing information And improving, upon different iterations of a project without human intervention. That’s where we’re heading.

Jordan Wilson [00:09:22]:

Right? Not not even talking about artificial general intelligence. We have AI agents that are Prop again, most most of y’all probably listening probably don’t pay too close attention. I I I play around with AI agents here and there, but when we look at the difference between the Internet and AI, That part is very important. All the Internet did is it allowed us to share intelligence. AI is changing What intelligence means. Right? So then I think it’s also important to look at what OpenAI is even working on. Right? Like we talked about at the top of the show, they’re, you know, they’re, $90,000,000,000 valuation. They’re eyeing, you know, $1,300,000,000 in, annual revenue this year.

Jordan Wilson [00:10:15]:

So they’re working openly on artificial general intelligence. Right? So what does that mean? That’s essentially AGI, and I’ll probably have to devote an entire episode to AGI down the line. But AGI is when the systems that we build Far out far, exceed their their training, and they start to make decisions that are outside of what we even trained them for. Right? So now I talked a little bit about the Internet and how impactful it’s been. And there’s there there’s no understating it y’all. Like, The Internet changed how the world operates. But here’s here’s what happened. It took, I think.

Jordan Wilson [00:11:09]:

You know? Even when we look at the .com, you know, the .com, bubble in the late nineties, You know, when when the Internet kind of changed the rules. But it took a very long time, I think for the average company or the average person, to really have to leverage the Internet. Right. I was working full time as a journalist when I was a junior in high school. You know, I was literally working. I think it was, You know, 37 and a half hours a week as a journalist, you know, in 2002, 2003, something like that. Even at that time, you know, the Internet had been Widely available for almost almost a you know, not not quite a decade, but almost a decade. Instill companies like, you you know, news organizations.

Jordan Wilson [00:12:01]:

We’re like, we don’t need to really put anything on the Internet. So it took companies. They had this, long period of 15, 20 years to, adopt to the Internet. So when I talk about will AI be more impactful, I shared those stats in the beginning of the show. So, essentially, artificial intelligence is expected To be about, 3 times more impactful when it comes to generating revenue. Or sorry. Twice as impactful in 1 third of the time. What do y’all think? I I know we’re having some tech delays here on the live stream, but don’t worry about it.

How much bigger will AI’s impact be?

Jordan Wilson [00:12:48]:

I’m still looking at your your comments. So thank you for joining. Ben Ben with a great thought here. He says, it’s more AI and the Internet. The compute power of AI connectivity The Internet opens so many doors. I absolutely agree. I absolutely agree. So, Obviously, I’m not alone in saying that the AI is much more impactful than the Internet, but I wanna just give you 2 2 examples.

Jordan Wilson [00:13:22]:

So in in 1995, Bill Gates, Then the, you know, Microsoft, founder and CEO, I believe that was his title at the time. He sent a famous company wide memo that called the Internet a tidal wave that could change all the rules. Okay? With AI, We’re playing a new game. We’re not changing the rules. Right? How the Internet was just changing the rules. Right? So So now I wanna talk about present day, and then now I wanna talk about another big tech CEO. So Google CEO, Sundar Pichai recently said that AI will be more impactful than the discovery of fire And electricity. Right? I don’t know if if if any of you saw that.

Jordan Wilson [00:14:15]:

I believe this was in a interview with 60 Minutes. We kinda you know, we reported on it for the day, and we all kind of swept it under the rug and kept going. But now when you think of all of these other things happening, Right? Look at the power of those words saying AI will be more impactful than fire and electricity. That’s not me. That’s not, you you know, old man Jordan ranting About, oh, AI is cool. Check it out. That is the CEO of Google. Right? Saying that AI will be more impactful than the discovery of fire in And electricity.

Jordan Wilson [00:14:58]:

So, you know, you can laugh and say, oh, okay. Yeah. That’s that’s that’s a wild claim, But I think it’s rooted in a lot of truth. And speaking of truth, I think Even the reason why I thought it was important to have this show, to draw these parallels between artificial intelligence and the Internet is I believe that the average person is comparing the 2, and I think it’s it’s actually a little dangerous. It’s dangerous for us as individuals who are trying to grow our careers, and it’s also a dangerous thought or a dangerous comparison, I believe, for in companies as well. Because like I talked about, with the Internet, it was this very slow rollout. Because I think the more that we use the Internet in the early days, the more we understood it. Right? So then we became comfortable with it, and we slowly integrated it into our daily lives, into how our company, You know, into how our companies run.

Jordan Wilson [00:16:09]:

I don’t think AI is like that. Right? I’m someone that uses different AI systems Every single day. I’ve talked to probably more than a 100 now on the Everyday AI Show. I’ve probably talked to now more than a 100 different guests From leaders at the world’s largest companies to everyday entrepreneurs, business owners, And I I still don’t I still don’t feel even some of the smartest people that I’ve talked to still fully understand generative AI because there’s a big difference. The more you use the Internet, the more you understand it. The more you actually use generative AI, The more perplexing I think it becomes. Right? Because then we start to get little glimpses here and there of its power. Right? This is something all the time.

ChatGPT and other LLMs are disruptive

Jordan Wilson [00:17:09]:

People with ChatGPT, you know, we do, twice a week, we do a free class called prime prompt polish. And I had one this this past Thursday. You know, I was kind of you you know, dude, it’s it’s a live course. We teach people it’s it’s free. We Teach people the correct ways to use a large language model, and we just go into a little background of what large language models even are. And so many people, I remember on Thursday, were like, my mind is blown because I was showing them how a large language model actually works. Right? And a lot of times, we just go and we use. We use these AI systems, And we just get a little confused.

Jordan Wilson [00:17:49]:

And as someone that spent now, I should I should have an hour tracker somewhere. As as someone that spent, more than a 1000 hours inside just chat GPT, even still, the more time I spend, The more perplexed I often am. Because the reality is, you know, chat JPT will probably, You know, in in a year from now, we’ll be maybe the much less disruptive than I think it is or could be right now. You know? I always go on my rants that I think chat GPT with plug ins is probably the most disruptive force that a business, or sorry. The the probably the biggest weapon that a business could be using right now but isn’t. And I think that in a year or 2, I don’t even know if ChatGp is gonna be in the conversation. I mean, I think it will be, But I think Microsoft CoPilot is gonna be extremely disruptive. Right? So when we talk about Will generative AI will AI be more impactful than the Internet? Absolutely.

Why people dismiss AI

Jordan Wilson [00:19:03]:

It will. And I think I’d be, I will have dropped the ball if I didn’t mention Why people on the other side. Right? I’m obviously an advocate for generative AI. I talk about it every day. I try to teach people. We try to put out great value. We try to put out, you know, a ton of information that you can use to grow your company, to grow your career. There’s there there’s people who write it off, which is fine.

Jordan Wilson [00:19:32]:

But I I wanna talk about some of the reasons why people write it off. Number 1, it’s because they don’t understand it. They don’t understand it again. We had a decade plus to understand the Internet, and it was very easy to understand. When you use the Internet, It was easy to understand. When we use generative AI, it’s not quite as easy. You’re saying, how am I able to create all of these things so quickly? Is it ethical? What’s gonna happen to my job? You know, when all of our you know, when companies, from the top down start to understand and leverage generative AI. So Using AI can be a confusing thing, but one of the most common misconceptions is this terrible This terrible saying that I wish we would all stop saying that AI won’t take your job.

Jordan Wilson [00:20:24]:

Someone using AI will. It’s a terrible saying. I’m sorry. Whoever was the first to say that, and now, You know, a 1000 people every day just copy and paste something similar on Twitter so they can build build up an audience and sell you something. That is, I think, that is one of the most it’s it’s just a phrase we have to stop saying Because it is patently false. Alright? Number 1, the inter like, AI’s gonna take jobs, period. Someone using AI will also take jobs, but more than 1. You know? That’s the thing I keep talking.

Jordan Wilson [00:21:05]:

It’s it’s not a one It’s not a 1 on 1 trade off. It’s not, oh, the 1 person using generative AI will take Take the job of the 1 person who is not using generative AI. That’s that’s an argument that we should have been using 20 years ago When it comes to the Internet. Because that’s that’s factual, and I agree. Right? 20 years ago. Hey. The Internet won’t take your job. Someone using the Internet will.

Jordan Wilson [00:21:33]:

Absolutely. That’s absolutely true. Because, again, the Internet Just helped us share human intelligence. AI is creating Its own. Right? We’ve already seen it. We’re not even in the age of artificial general intelligence. You know, when we think of, You know, Terminator and Skynet and all these all these things that it’s even harder to wrap wrap your heads around. But AI, even right now, is creating its own intelligence.

Jordan Wilson [00:22:07]:

It is. And I’ll argue people on that because they say, oh, Jordan. Well, right now, all AI can really do is, You know, what it’s trained to do within its model, within its, you know, 1,800,000,000,000, parameter. You know, it’s GPT 4. That’s its, You know, big, large language, large language model. It’s 1,800,000,000,000 parameters. I don’t think so. I think AI can still create new things that we haven’t seen before.

Jordan Wilson [00:22:35]:

That’s why we all use it. Right? Yes. It is, essentially a collection of everything that’s, already been ingested on the Internet and, you know, millions of books and works of art. But AI is already, I think, creating its own type of intelligence, and we’re not even yet in the age of general artificial general intelligence. So I wanna I wanna get to a couple comments here. And, again, if you’re if you’re listening on the podcast, thank you. We always leave something in the show notes for you to reach out. I’d love to hear, you know, what you want us to tackle next on the show.

Jordan Wilson [00:23:11]:

And I’d I’d love to hear from you too if if you think AI will be more impactful in in the Internet. And to hey. To everyone joining live, thank you. I’m gonna get to a couple of your comments here. I know we have some, Some technical issues. So Harold saying AI would not have the capacity to be as impactful, without the Internet and the infrastructure that was Created by the Internet. Good headline, but they are symbiotic. Absolutely.

Jordan Wilson [00:23:35]:

Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Without without the Internet, yeah, we would have no generative AI, because generative AI is essentially like I said, it’s it’s a collection of everything good and bad that has ever existed on the Internet and a lot more. Kieran, thank you for the comment. Kieran saying AI will be more impactful than the discovery, fire and electricity. Yes. That was from the Google CEO, Sundar Puchai. Let’s see.

The Internet led to the creation of AI

Jordan Wilson [00:24:03]:

What else? What do you what do y’all think as as as we wrap up today’s show? Retail and transportation will be impacted, disrupted by AI, but consumer mobile Internet enabled the fastest growing yes. You you know, enabled the fastest and growing sector. Absolutely. Yeah. We can’t, we can’t skip over the fact that, obviously, the the Internet essentially did create artificial intelligence. Right? Because without it, I don’t know how large language models Would have been able to, come into existence. So yeah. You you know? And I’m definitely not trying to compare the 2.

Jordan Wilson [00:24:45]:

I’m trying to compare the human reaction to the 2 and to draw a a parallel. You know? Because, yes, the Internet was very impactful. But like I said, the Internet was not creating its own intelligence. It wasn’t. It just brought. I think it it revolutionized the, The ability for humans to access information. I remember when I used to need one simple answer to something. I would first if we had, you know, an encyclopedia or a dictionary in the house, you’d start there.

Jordan Wilson [00:25:22]:

But anything other, you might I mean, you’d have to go to the library, And you might have to spend hours looking up just for 1 piece of information. Right? So, yes, obviously, the Internet, we can’t overlook its impact on society, on business, on on personal growth, all of those things. Really, what I wanted to get to into the into today’s show is to kind of, debunk this claim that, oh, AI is just kind of like the Internet. It’s going to follow a similar path. You know, we’re all yes. It’s it’s, it’s a big technology, but All we have to do to see what’s gonna happen because of AI. People say, oh, let’s look at the the the path of the Internet. Let’s look at, you know, how we as humans and how different industries and verticals, in in companies around the world.

Jordan Wilson [00:26:14]:

Let’s see how they reacted to and took advantage of the Internet, and that will be our our playbook for how we do the same with generative AI. But it’s definitely it’s definitely not like that. It’s definitely not like that. Alright. Thank you all for your comments. Thank you, and Please continue continue to keep keep the conversation going in the comments on LinkedIn. And, again, if you are joining us on the podcast, you know, we always leave links coming and join the conversation, but I’ll leave it with this. I’ll leave it with a high level recap.

Jordan Wilson [00:26:49]:

Will AI be more impactful than the Internet. Absolutely. We can’t even begin. I don’t think. We can’t even begin to fathom. And I think that drawing Any comparisons or any any parallels to how the Internet impacted different sectors or industries. You know, if we say, oh, look at what the AI did to, Blockbuster. And, yes, Jordan, You know, maybe, the Internet, in theory, led to the demise of the video store, led to the demise of Blockbuster.

Jordan Wilson [00:27:24]:

But look at all the new industries it created, Streaming videos, and now you have thousands of people working on new Internet video technologies. And you have Netflix, and you have, You know, Disney plus, and you have all these new, you know, kind of new, you know, supplementary or complementary industries that were created because of the Internet. It is not going to be like that with artificial intelligence. That is kind of ultimately the point of why I wanted to have a show like this because I think now after, You know, spending the majority of my days trying to, you know, over the past 6 you know, 5 or 6 months since we started Everyday AI, Talking to very intelligent people, trying to to read and understand artificial intelligence the more time you spend with it. It is not going to be the same. Right. We’re not gonna have industries go through kind of like the, the blockbuster to Netflix transition per se. That is not how it’s going to work.

Jordan Wilson [00:28:23]:

Right? AI is going to be extremely disruptive. Alright. Yes. There’s a lot of, exciting and new possibilities and new industries that will be created, but This isn’t supposed to be a show where we end on a down note, but I will go back to one of the pieces of news that we talked about. When the head of the SEC Says that it is nearly unavoidable that AI will cause a major financial crash within the next decade. I’m gonna say it’s gonna be much faster than that. Right? We cannot think of artificial intelligence, the same way that we thought or think of the Internet. If you have that mindset, you need to change it.

Jordan Wilson [00:29:14]:

Right? Whether it’s for your own personal growth, whether it’s what you’re trying to and Learn whether it’s the direction your company is heading. Do not look at the playbook that we created Through the Internet, you know, going from web 1 to web 2 to web 3, whatever you wanna call it. It is not the same thing. The Internet is how we shared information. Artificial intelligence is creating its own. But don’t worry. Every single day. If that if that scares you a little bit, that’s okay.

Jordan Wilson [00:29:48]:

I think we we grow. We grow as individuals. We grow our careers. We we grow our companies when we’re a little scared, when we’re a little uneasy. But I wanted to prepare everyone because I think there’s just a lot of bad information out there. There’s people drawing these, conclusions and these parallels that I think aren’t rooted in truth. Right? I hope today’s show showed you by sharing some facts, sharing some truths, can help you better prepare, and you can do so every single day with us. We bring on Experts almost every single day.

Jordan Wilson [00:30:17]:

Sometimes you get, sometimes you get just me, but we have some great shows lined up for you this week. So if you want to take advantage of everything that artificial intelligence has to offer us. If you want to grow your company and grow your career with AI, please join us The rest of the week at Everyday AI, we have some great episodes planned. So I hope to see you back for more Everyday AI. Thanks, y’all.

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Ep 123: Will AI Be More Impactful Than The Internet?