Artificial Intelligence – Lovers, Haters, and Their Arguments – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #968

Generative AI – Lovers, Haters, and Their Arguments – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #968

Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post 968 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to aq.pharmaveterans@gmail.com for publishing your contributions here.

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Help for this two-part blogpost has been taken from ChatGPT4o, HubSpot, Mckinsey, and MIT.

Prologue

Generative AI has sparked significant debate, drawing strong opinions from both advocates and critics. The technology's potential to transform industries and society at large is undeniable, but so are the concerns it raises. 

CSER – Center for the Study of Existential Risk – is an interdisciplinary research center within the University of Cambridge, UK. Their website says, ‘We are dedicated to the study and mitigation of risks that could lead to human extinction or civilizational collapse’. In a panel discussion during February 2024, one panelist categorically termed AI as an existential risk for the extinction of humankind. He said AI is not Artificial Intelligence, it is Alien Intelligence. The other panelist took it further and said AI may be called Alien Invasion. These are very strong sentiments against AI.

The proponents of AI, on the other hand, are not tiring to tell us that only in one year, AI has created huge value and by 2030, value created by AI shall be over $3 trillion. Numerous applications have been developed and are being developed every day. Though it started with OpenAI but now all big players, Google, Apple, Microsoft, Meta, and everyone else has joined the bandwagon. Educational institutions and consulting companies are not left behind either.

In this two-part miniseries, we shall look at both sides of the arguments.

10 Things AI Can Do at Work Today? Many More to Come

1. Knowledge and Information Retrieval – quickly, saving time and effort

2. Task Reminders and Management – serving as a virtual assistant

3. Writing and Editing Support – drafting emails, crafting reports, editing, proofreading

4. Onboarding and Training – Orientation and training presently done by HR staff

5. Problem Solving and Decision Making – make more informed, better decisions

6. Programming and Technical Support – coding, troubleshooting, explanations

7. Customer Support and Service – instant response and support to customers

8. Collaboration and Idea Generation – brainstorming, creativity, collaboration

9. Project Management – tracking project progress, status updates

10. Employee Wellbeing – stress management/ work life balance ideas

This is the outline of where we are today, however, things are changing very fast. 

 The Lovers of Generative AI: What Excites Them?

Enhanced Creativity and Innovation

Generative AI tools like OpenAI's GPT-4 can assist in creating new content, from writing and art to music and even software code. These tools offer a way to push the boundaries of creativity and innovation by providing new means of expression and problem-solving capabilities. This has been particularly impactful in fields like design, entertainment, and even scientific research.

Increased Efficiency and Productivity

Businesses are leveraging generative AI to automate repetitive tasks, generate insightful data analyses, and even create customer service chatbots that handle inquiries 24/7. This can significantly reduce costs and free up human workers for more strategic and creative tasks. For instance, companies are using generative AI to streamline content creation processes and develop personalized marketing materials at scale.

Advancements in Medicine and Research

Generative AI is making waves in the medical field by aiding in drug discovery and personalized medicine. AI models can analyze vast amounts of data to identify patterns and potential treatments much faster than traditional methods. This can lead to more rapid advancements in healthcare and better patient outcomes.

Educational Transformation

In education, generative AI is being used to create personalized learning experiences and to develop educational tools that cater to individual student needs. It provides new ways for students to engage with material and supports educators by generating lesson plans, practice questions, and even interactive simulations.

Economic Growth and Job Creation

Proponents argue that generative AI will spur economic growth by creating new markets and job opportunities. As companies adopt these technologies, new roles will emerge in AI development, maintenance, and ethical oversight, potentially leading to a net gain in employment opportunities.

Making Surgeries Safer - MIT Technology Review

A June 2024 article in MIT Technology Review states; [Edited Quote} …serious medical errors occur that kill some 22,000 Americans each year. Many of these errors happen on the operating table, from leaving surgical sponges inside patients’ bodies to performing the wrong procedures altogether. Teodor Grantcharov, Professor of Surgery at Stanford has developed the technology which is the equivalent of an airplane’s Blackbox. It records everything in the OR via panoramic cameras, microphones, and anesthesia monitors before using AI to help surgeons make sense of the data. Medical Devices giants like Medtronic, Johnson & Johnson, and Intuitive Surgical are already in this space. This Blackbox platform utilizes a handful of computer vision models and ultimately spits out a series of short video clips and a dashboard of statistics – like how much blood was lost, which instruments were used, and how many auditory disruptions occurred. This is supposed to reduce the surgical errors significantly. This data can also be used to train other surgeons. [Unquote]

The above are just some of the arguments from a long list that AI proponents present. 

The State of AI in Early 2024 - McKinsey

[Edited Quote] If 2023 was the year the world discovered generative AI (gen AI), 2024 is the year organizations truly began using—and deriving business value from—this new technology. In the latest McKinsey Global Survey on AI, 65 percent of respondents report that their organizations are regularly using gen AI, nearly double the percentage from our previous survey just ten months ago. Respondents’ expectations for gen AI’s impact remain as high as they were last year, with three-quarters predicting that gen AI will lead to significant or disruptive change in their industries in the years ahead. Organizations are already seeing material benefits from gen AI use, reporting both cost decreases and revenue jumps in the business units deploying the technology.

The latest survey also shows how different industries are budgeting for gen AI. Responses suggest that, in many industries, organizations are about equally as likely to be investing more than 5 percent of their digital budgets in gen AI as they are in nongenerative, analytical-AI solutions. Yet in most industries, larger shares of respondents report that their organizations spend more than 20 percent on analytical AI than on gen AI. Looking ahead, most respondents—67 percent—expect their organizations to invest more in AI over the next three years.

Where are those investments paying off? For the first time, our latest survey explored the value created by gen AI use by business function. The function in which the largest share of respondents report seeing cost decreases is human resources. Respondents most commonly report meaningful revenue increases (of more than 5 percent) in supply chain and inventory management. For analytical AI, respondents most often report seeing cost benefits in service operations—in line with what we found last year—as well as meaningful revenue increases from AI use in marketing and sales. [Unquote]

To be Concluded……

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