drawing of elephant

I think big change is coming to the world of ‘office’ work. Everywhere you look people are using AI and discussing its advantages and disadvantages. And, to be honest, it is fun to have a play with as long as you are prepared not to necessarily take its work at face value! It can be useful to get you started on a project though even if you may discard its suggestions along the way. The hard bit is basically asking it the right questions in the right way. It always makes me think about the English exercise you do as children where you have to describe an activity or something to an alien - makes you realise how much human understanding we take for granted!

But the truth is that many people are using it already and that has a knock on effect. It does make people more productive and saves a lot of time doing basic admin jobs for example. Gone are the days of someone needing to spend many hours typing up meeting notes when you can get an AI onboard who will give you a transcript of the meeting plus individual action plans at pretty much the touch of a button. I’ve also seen a lot of social media stuff that suggests making one bit of long form content and then asking AI to make it into 1 reel script, 1 carousel outline and 3 Instagram Stories - would definitely save me a lot of time! However, all this usefulness comes at a cost because you no longer need a junior. There become fewer roles for young people to get a foot in the door and get that all important experience that no-one seems to want to give. It also means that the people using the AI don’t get an opportunity to lead a team and are not learning skills to move them up the job ladder.

At the other end of the scale I can see more older people feeling that this is another change that they just can’t weather and finding that they yearn for a simpler life. Or worse, finding themselves written off as being unable to move with the times and choice taken away from them as they are replaced by younger, and let’s be honest here, cheaper staff members. AI is not perfect and we still need people who know how things actually work.

Anyway to end on a bright note I asked an AI to make up a joke about an elephant:-

Why do elephants never bother learning to use computers? Because they’re terrified of the mouse!

Naughty AI! I think I’ve heard that one before!

Write me an original joke about an elephant:-

What’s an elephant’s favourite kind of math? Trunk-nometry!

Pretty certain a lot of real comedians have nothing to worry about and can breathe a sigh of relief! Writers of joke anthologies for 6 year olds should be quaking in their boots though!