Almost every blogger, vblogger, podcaster, columnist and whoever have you, is going literally BALLISTIC with their views on Artificial Intelligence or simply AI, from the time a 'hydra' called Chat GPT surfaced!
Whoa! If one has to go by most of their interpretations, it's almost doomsday around the corner!! It reminds me of those days very long ago when as adolescents, we would shiver and shake whenever accosted by a bunch of soothsayers who'd walk the streets with placards declaring "The World Was Soon Coming To An End". It took quite a few of those declarations over a period of time for it to eventually dawn on us that they were sheer mumbo-jumbo because, as you can see, the world still hasn't come to an end!
That's one of the reasons why I haven't got carried away with so many views expressed on AI so far. Listen, I was born in an era which was still rejoicing the invention of a gramophone. And since then my life, along with a generation of die-hards, have experientially sailed through ever changing ecosystems constantly - a meandering traverse from the gramophone to the iPhone and beyond, if I may say so.
But there always existed intermittent fears with every change that happened. Whether the change was one of a series of inventions - manual typewriters to electronic ones to computers to laptops to typing on just a flat screen or from rickety old manual, non-powered cars to the modern 'zippers' to the electrically operated ones - or whether the change were a series of rapid technological innovations that often led to newly produced products becoming almost operationally obsolete such as the present day mobile phone sets. In whatever form changes happened, YES it was always accompanied with it's fair share of fears of the unknown, undeniably.
But like those silly placards that prophesied doom, no new invention or innovation till date ever doomed our existence personally and professionally. That's because, while we always tend to allow our minds to create 'doomsday mind movies', the intelligence of our logical control battles the change to our entire advantage eventually. And believe me, I've been there, done it and seen it all!!!
So for those of you who are almost drowning in your fears, not of the AI in particular, but of every interpretation of its projected doomsday prophecies floating around in all the social media handles you spend most of your productive time drifting through aimlessly, here's a very practical view from an Old Maverick called the POWER-UP Framework:
The POWER-UP Framework
- P: PLUG-IN TO YOUR ECOSYSTEM. All of us have this procrastinating tendency not to plug into the ecosystem we exist in. We hate change even though we know at the back of our minds, it's a constant. If you consciously or otherwise keep straying away from closely observing the way it shifts and shakes and not move in tandem with it, you sure are going to get swallowed up by its 'advanced Avatar' sooner or later.
- O: OPEN YOUR MIND TO CHANGE BEING A CONSTANT. Understand change. Dissolve into it. Becoming one with it. Most often, change is always for the better. Flow with it. Ride on its crest instead of hiding beneath the wave. And watch your mindset grow with it.
- W: WORK ON SELF-DEVELOPMENT. Dr Carol Dweck, a psychologist professor at Stanford distinguished, quite pointedly between a Fixed Mindset versus a Growth Mindset. She said that a fixed mindset believed that one's basic abilities, intelligence, talents are fixed traits and nothing could be done to change those. Whereas, a growth mindset believed that one's abilities can be developed through effort, good teaching and persistence. The choice is yours to make.
- E: EMBRACE NEW SKILLS. In an ever changing ecosystem, you will become redundant if you don't keep Up-Skilling. We don't live in the gramophone era anymore. I realised that decades ago. And since then, I've been constantly Up-Skilling. From a nerd who used to stare at a record spinning on a turntable fascinatingly, to someone who's presently automated his entire set of ventures and initiatives, I'm doing good!
- R: REPEATEDLY CHANGE YOUR INNER CIRCLE OF CONNECTS. You will always be the average of the five people you mingle with. As you keep riding the crest of change higher and higher, keep connecting with those who are as passionate as you are to be the best version of yourselves. The better the version, the better the growth - personally and professionally.
And here's two more I've added to POWER you UP with:
6. U: ULTIMATELY YOU MATTER. One of the most fascinating lessons my Mum taught me was the importance of a 3 worded sentence: I AM RESPONSIBLE. You are responsible for everything that happens in your life including your failures and successes. No one else really is. So get this straight into your head. You've never ever missed a boat in life. That's because you're the boat. Sinking or staying afloat is your responsibility.
7. P: PEN PROGRESS ON PAPER. Journal, journal, journal. every evening before you tuck into bed, put pen to paper and write out your thoughts. Writing is the slowest medium of communication. And yet, the most powerful when it comes to chatting up with your mind. Write out your failures and your successes for the day. Size yourself up and add a couple of notches above it all to become an improved version of yourself the next day. Add a couple of new 'To-Dos' and you're good to go for another ride on the crest!
Cheers and hell with fears of the unknown...including AI!
Ciao for now!!
Anand Nair
