00:00Your essay is called the era of AI FOMO is upon us. FOMO as in fear of missing out. I
00:07got to tell you I have JOMO when it comes to AI. That's the joy of missing out. But are
00:11people upset they're not getting on the AI bandwagon.
00:17I think a lot of things are going on at once. One is we're a few years into ChatGPT. That's
00:24the chat bot that was released by OpenAI a few years ago. I think more or less most of us
00:29understand what that is.
00:30The FOMO aspect comes from the fact that the companies behind AI models like ChatGPT are moving on really, really
00:40quickly. They are releasing new models every few months.
00:43And it feels like the tech is developing exponentially quicker. It's a much faster evolution pace than we've seen from
00:52things like phones, where maybe it would be an annual or a biannual upgrade.
00:56We're talking about sort of months or weeks between releases. And there's lots of releases from lots of different companies.
01:02So the FOMO aspect is partly about also feeling like you're just not really on top of this technology that
01:08everyone's telling you might take your job, might be really useful, but has severe economic impact.
01:17So it's a lot of big statements for something that's very, very hard to keep up with. So I think
01:22that's the sort of sentiment that underpins the FOMO element.
01:25But you also write about how it's supposed to save us time and it's supposed to make us more efficient.
01:30And you use the anecdote of I think it's a guy who like wrote some sort of program that kind
01:34of runs his life and puts all these things, including like his taxes and his schedule and his workout schedule,
01:39all into some sort of system where it's all optimized.
01:43And you're like, am I supposed to be spending my few free hours coding some sort of system to then
01:48make those hours more efficient? Am I?
01:52Yeah, I think, you know, certainly for me and us AI skeptics, I wouldn't necessarily describe myself as a full
01:59AI skeptic.
02:00But this idea that AI should run many aspects of my life is something I feel icky about, for want
02:06of a better word.
02:07That's actually a great word.
02:08It's a little icky. You know, it sort of turns us all into coders, potentially the idea of making your
02:14whole life kind of readable to the machine rather than this idiosyncratic, maybe slightly chaotic if you're a parent like
02:22me.
02:22You know, my life isn't highly systematized. I make decisions on the fly all the time.
02:28You know, how do I tell an AI system to run my life?
02:31It feels like there's a big barrier to adoption there where, you know, I have to think about my life
02:36in a systemic way.
02:37I'd have to organize it in a way that makes sense to a machine.
02:41And then maybe the machine might do an OK job of, I don't know, sending some emails, sending some messages,
02:47booking some appointments.
02:48But it feels, you know, it feels like there's a big gap there between what my life actually is versus
02:53what I might be able to tell an AI agent to do.
02:55And the promise is, of course, is that an AI agent can do these boring things for you and save
03:00you time.
03:00But in reality, you know, does your phone really save you time?
03:04I mean, you know, you use it for huge amounts of admin.
03:07It means that actually a lot of what we have to do nowadays, you know, booking holidays, finding a date,
03:13ordering food.
03:14It's exhausting. Yeah.
03:16It's exhausting. We all spend, you know, maybe it does save us time.
03:19But the upshot is it's all moved to a single device where we now spend, you know, many hours a
03:24day doing our kind of life admin, but also work happens on devices.
03:29So you just feel like a growing chunk of your time is spent on a screen.
03:33So this idea of spending more of your time telling a screen what to do and how to organize your
03:38life just feels like a bridge too far and maybe a little exhausting.
03:41And maybe there's a disconnect between how much companies get out of it and like a value add in our
03:46actual personal life.
03:47Because you write the creep of digital technology into our lives hasn't demonstrably freed us up for higher or nobler
03:52pursuits.
03:53We don't create more art because life is easier.
03:56Decades after the arrival of email, we just send and receive more of it.
03:59The smartphone era has flattened everything, as you just mentioned, into a single screen of constant admin.
04:05So how do you balance this?
04:07Any advice for people who think they should be participating or people who are panicked and participating too much?
04:13How do we handle this?
04:15I think it's important to remember that not everyone needs to be on the cutting edge.
04:19I feel particularly exposed to this myself because I am a technology journalist.
04:23It's my job to look at some of these tools almost on a daily basis.
04:27And, you know, many companies are encouraging employees to experiment with AI tools.
04:32So, but you don't have to do everything.
04:35You don't have to hand over everything to an AI.
04:38You know, ultimately you're in control over how much you use it.
04:40So I think the answer is to set some boundaries and stay a little resilient to some of the hype
04:46around it.
04:47You don't have to use this in your personal life if you don't want to.
04:50I think it's important to keep an open mind, as with all technologies.
04:54But, you know, as such, you don't need to be on the front line, you know, getting an agent to
04:59organize your personal life.
05:00Clearly that works for some people, some people who love spending the time with the technology to make it work
05:05for them.
05:06Not all of us have to do that as yet, but it is worth keeping an open mind.
05:09So I think it's about setting boundaries.
05:11And, you know, ultimately, if you don't want to look at a screen, you don't want to look at the
05:14AI at this point.
05:15You don't have to.
05:16And you can go and touch grass and spend time with your family.
05:19Yeah, I'm not great at setting boundaries.
05:21I feel like now I've got another boundary I've got to set.
05:23But very quickly, we've only got about 30 seconds before I let you go.
05:26Have you found AI to be useful in one small way in your life?
05:30I have, which is why I wouldn't say that I am an AI skeptic.
05:34I do find it useful for, you know, where I live in London for recommendations about day trips to visit
05:41with.
05:41I've got a toddler and we often are finding ourselves looking for things to do to keep her occupied.
05:46And an AI is a useful sort of bulk research tool like a Google on steroids.
05:50So, you know, just in terms of a map of suggestions, a list of suggestions, I have found it quite
05:56useful for that in my personal life.
05:57But, you know, everyone's mileage varies.
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