Spring, Skills, and Shifting Times
Almost two years later
I wish spring in Wellington is less nippy, less like a small dog around the ankles, and more like a caramel-coloured cat that brushed past me last night.
In the dark.
I am sure it was she, because when I asked, “Where did you come from?” she glanced at me over her shoulder as if to say, “What kind of question is this? Don’t you know how to appreciate the company?”
Indeed.
I wish AI, in all its ever-evolving iterations (ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, DeepMind, Mistral, Claude’s Opus, Sonnet, Udio, etc.), would tell everyone — writers, musicians, doctors, lawyers, podcasters, bloggers, accountants — to stop talking/writing/protesting/fear-mongering about it and instead… I don’t know:
Pat a cat (even if of unknown origin).
Talk to a close or even a far-off neighbour.
Pick up a pen and paper and write a line… two lines even.
Play with kids (of any origin).
Read, speak, sing, shout… let your (human) voice vibrate in the air you are standing/sitting/lying in.
Cook (just add… whatever will do).
Bake (ready mixtures count).
Change a lightbulb (even better if you need to ask for help).
Sew (a button is fine).
Knit (keeping fingers on the needles will do).
Fix a leaking tap (calling a plumber is a bonus).
I can go on and on like this, but I won’t.
Not only to spare us both boredom, but because it seems obvious — the more skill-based the task is — the less AI.
And before you say the ubiquitous “for now,” let me say that “for now” might not only last for quite some time yet, but also restore much-needed balance between the two groups of traditional workforce: the so-called blue and white-collar workers. Both of which were long mistreated; first by being (generally) underpaid and underappreciated on the basis of a misguided idea of “education,” and the second by being (generally) overpaid and overvalued for the same reasons.
Am I really saying that, for instance, a medical doctor or lawyer or an accountant are just as valuable and worthy of high earnings and appreciation as a plumber, mechanic, or electrician?
What do you think?
All I know is that many of the tasks of doctors (and lawyers and accountants) are already completed by AI, while none of the tasks of plumbers, mechanics, and electricians are. Yes, I know — not yet.
Still, there is something satisfying in thinking that, at long last, and from the most unlikely quarters, “revenge” has been exacted on all the so-called “white-collar professionals,” not to mention politicians accompanied by all their analysts, and the like!
I’ve recently read that soon there will be no need to bother turning up to a lecture about, say, evolution at the university, because a super-smart AI would do a world-class podcast deep-dive dialogue about… well, just about anything. Imagine using voice-cloning technology to add some fun and get Charles Darwin to discuss evolution with Richard Dawkins. Or Karl Marx to discuss merits and pitfalls of capitalism with Adam Smith!
It has been suggested that this technology would be great for lonely people, those, like yours truly, stuck indoors who crave some company and intellectual stimuli. Well, be that as it may — having first-hand experience of the condition, I would not recommend it. If for no other reason, but because however intellectually stimulating such exchanges might be, they can never substitute the energies exchanged in real-life conversations. Besides, we, real, fallible humans, neither crave nor thrive on superior conversations, however enlightening they might be, but rather on the quirks and follies of each other’s.
I wish those of us living inside their phones would gaze around at least every now and then… before a brand-new skill becomes hotly in demand — a flesh-and-bone human companion, willing and able to converse, hug, joke, laugh, cry… If I were an entrepreneurial woman, I would invest in such a venture.
As it is, I am an ordinary woman who, almost two years ago, started writing on Medium. Incidentally, ChatGPT was released to the wider public around the same time. Not that I had a clue about it. The first time I became more than marginally aware of the phenomenon, I wrote a tongue-in-cheek article about it.
But alas, two years and 114 articles later, some changes seem to loom over the horizon.
After many trials and tribulations, of which I might write one day, I am finally inching closer to the day when a book I have carried inside myself for years might see the light of day.
Amongst other things, this also means that I might not have time to write regularly, or perhaps even for a long time. But, as I am a lifelong word-addict, I shall most certainly return, however infrequently.
Last but not least —
thank you all for your support, understanding, and encouragement.
If you would like to keep in touch with me, you’re welcome to subscribe to my free and occasional newsletter.
Take care, everyone!
Thank you for reading.
