March 2023 shook the IT field in a way that was seismic and unprecedented, at least as far as I can remember. In 2017, I was very excited about blockchain; a few posts on this blog show it. But the shock of blockchain was met with much more skepticism because of its “lack of delivery.” I even complained about it here.

Now AI barely made a promise before it started delivering in a frightening way. Bill Gates said he could not remember anything having such an impact on computing since the invention of the graphical user interface.[1]

Yuval Harari has also raised concerns about machines mastering language.[2]

I also had to watch Lex Fridman’s podcast with CEO Sam Altman:

Recently, I used AI to build a Python proof of concept that connects to a Redis instance and performs CRUD operations. It was incredible to see code generated so effortlessly for something that would have taken me time to learn by reading the documentation.

What I found most interesting was asking ChatGPT and Bing AI about programming concepts and snippets of code I had questions about. It was basically a conversation with another senior developer who knew (or seemed to know) what they were talking about and explained it clearly. Best of all, I could be as clueless as I wanted and say over and over, “I don’t get it, explain that again,” or “Let me see if I got it: does that mean X is equivalent to Y?”

It feels like the revolution I expected to experience with blockchain, but did not, is now happening with artificial intelligence. It seems to me that many people’s productivity will be multiplied.

The feeling is like getting an infinite box of chocolates from your parents, who tell you, “Eat as much as you like.” You look at the box in wonder, thinking about all the hidden pleasures inside those assorted chocolates, but also with some fear of the stomachaches they might cause.

How society will deal with this is still a mystery, but the market is already embracing it. DALL-E, Midjourney, and so many other tools are out there that I do not even want to name them and risk making this text obsolete.

One thing is certain: the way digital workers work will never be the same. Many people will fall into the sea as we sail into uncharted waters. I just hope it is not the entire crew of Spaceship Earth.