What to do in the AI age
The year before last I flip-flopped between panicking about AI one day taking my job, and seeing the potential it has to really change the world. During both flip and flop, I would try and figure out what I should do to survive; how I could best use the time I have available to prepare myself. Unfortunately we still live in a system of wage labour and since I get my money from software development, this AI stuff really directly impacts me.
Well it's been 2 years and I still don't really know. There isn't an aspect of software that AI isn't getting at least better at with each release. It's hard to really know what to focus on without having at least some idea what the landscape will look like 6, 12 months from now. I was already indecisive and non-committal at the best of times, so this was never going to be easy.
So, what to do? Best I can come up with is this: have fun.
Learn something; build something; generate something. Find an opportunity to use it for your own satisfaction and amusement. It's not going anywhere and if you're not using it for coding, it's basically free to use.1
I gave Gemini this prompt2:
Create a surreal image of the pop star Cher. Cher is sitting in an office cubicle at a desk using a 90s style computer with CRT monitor. Cher is wearing an aqua-coloured polo shirt with an embroidered logo; the logo is for a mortgage advice company called "Cher". Cher is wearing a telephone headset, talking to a customer.
I had a pretty good laugh at what I got back. There's enough to cry about, so it's important to get in some laughs too.