LLMs, This is only the beginning
Don’t get your knickers in a twist
I was a pioneer in using collaborative technology to do dynamic knowledge capture, replacing the maintenance-intensive process of building and deploying “Expert Systems” The fear of AI is nothing new.
Before the introduction of the World Wide Web, Lotus Notes was the king of collaboration in the business world. So significant was this promise that IBM bought Lotus Development Corporation for a record-breaking amount. Unfortunately, as an administrator and trainer of Lotus Notes, I was caught between the sales pitch and the reality of improved productivity. Companies would be promised instant improvement by Lotus or IBM salespeople and complain to me as the admin/trainer when collaboration didn’t appear.
With a worldwide web, many people started to become excited about the prospects of a genuinely Networked Society Metcalfe’s law was playing out everywhere at a frightening pace.
Along comes Google with Google Workplace (GSuite), and I instantly recognized seamless and frictionless improvement over Lotus Notes with a cost structure that was impossible to beat. As a Google Admin / Trainer, I once again found myself fighting that battle with management between the promise of collaborative growth and reality. People just didn’t want to let go of their Word and Excel tools for what seemed like less sophisticated Docs and Sheets.
In May 2023, Google introduced AI technology embedded in Google Workspace. Large Language Models (LLMs) currently can be a far greater technology assistant than Clippy the Paperclip. Even before you factor in re-engineered workflows and the fact that a generation has come and gone and is seemingly more collaborative than previous generations (open-source mindset vs. “smartest guy in the room” mindset), AI in Google Workplace will produce orders of magnitude improvement productivity.
Terror at the speed of light.
But this is only the beginning. Technology is an iterative error correction process, and the improvement curve grows by an order of magnitude faster than the previous generation. Technology Change scares people, order of magnitude changes terrify people, “AI will take all the jobs!” or “AI will become self-aware & Skynet my company).
Fear and Terror increase people’s Resistance to change, and this can only be overcome by the commitment of senior stakeholders and management. The fix starts at the top; no technology magically dispels these fears. Folks only want to do their jobs and satisfy their boss, and new technology gets in the way.
LLMs are only the start of this rollercoaster ride. A clear and concise understanding of LLMs helps dispel fear and chaos. The speed of LLM evolution will be measured in weeks rather than years.
Technology-resistant companies might consider providing free adult diapers, as this terror will have a biological consensus.