Demystifying AI: Session recap and resources

In today's rapidly evolving job market, understanding artificial intelligence (AI) has become crucial, not just for tech professionals but for everyone.

This article supports PepTalk’s recent LinkedIn Live session, "Demystifying AI: Empowering the Workforce of Tomorrow", with Sharon Gai, an AI and Digital transformation expert. Here, we outline the different types of AI and introduce some tools and resources to integrate AI into your daily tasks seamlessly. 

Prepare for the future of work

As Sharon mentioned in her PepTalk, job descriptions mentioning Chat GPT and prompting have increased 21 times in the past year. This indicates that it is beneficial for most of us to understand, at a surface level, what the different types of artificial intelligence and machine learning systems are out there.

To start, here are the key different types of AI:

• Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI). This type of AI is specialised in one task and operates under a limited pre-defined range or set of contexts. Most of the AI in existence today is ANI, including Chat-GPT.
• Reactive Machines. These AI systems respond to specific inputs with specific outputs without using past experiences to inform their actions. They can’t learn or make decisions beyond their programming. A classic example is IBM’s Deep Blue, which beat the world chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1996.
• Limited Memory. These AI systems can use past experiences to inform decisions. Most current AI, including self-driving cars, falls into this category. They use historical data and past experiences to predict future outcomes.
• Theory of Mind. This is a more advanced type of AI we haven’t fully achieved yet. It refers to the ability of a system to understand the emotions, beliefs, needs, and thought processes of other intelligent entities. It’s about understanding others’ mental states and responding accordingly.
• Self-aware AI. This is the most advanced form of AI, which has consciousness, self-awareness, and sentience. These systems can understand their internal states and predict the feelings of others. We are far from achieving this level of AI.

‍Use AI practically

Sharon’s advice is to think of your job not just as a title but instead as a series of tasks. You can start to sort your set of tasks as high-level ones and low-level tasks, and you can think about what AI tools are available that are out there to begin implementing to outsource some of your less valuable but easier-to-automate tasks. 

To help you identify the best tasks, here are the skills that are hard for AI to replicate:

• Cognitive flexibility
• Digital literacy
• Creativity
• Emotional intelligence
• Cultural intelligence

Keeping the above in mind, a recent report from research firm IDC predicts that by 2024, 80% of Global 2000 companies will use artificially intelligent or machine-learning-enabled "Digital Managers" to hire, fire, and train workers in jobs measured by continuous improvement — but only one in five companies will get any real value from the move without human engagement. 

Tools and resources to use AI in your life

Tools for images:

• Midjourney
• DALL-E 2

Tools for presentations:

• Tome
• Gamma

Tools for video creation:

• Synthesia
• D-ID

Human attribution tool:

• The Not By AI badges are created to encourage more humans to produce original content and help users identify human-generated content.

Final thoughts

The image for this article was created by AI, with a prompt for a robot giving a PepTalk. Will we ever have video experts? The simple answer is that it will never be as inspiring or as motivating as someone with energy and a real passion for what they do. We want to learn and listen from those who smelt the air at the top of the mountain, changed society through advocacy, or simply see the world differently. In fact, many believe that Human Intelligence is the key to success — that includes those who predict the future of work.

Interested in Artificial Intelligence? We have a wealth of human expertise and AI speakers in our network, ready to ensure you and your team are well-equipped to take on whatever is coming next — simply drop us an email and we'll be able to help.