Where are we heading with AI?

Is art dead? Is software engineering dead? Is the role of therapists dead? Will AI replace all of us?

It's been a long time since I last wrote an issue here. Partly because my new job has been keeping me busy and partly because January was so long that I did not realize February is over, but I am glad not to miss it this month. I was going through the list of topics that I want to write about, and this was one of them. With the ghiblification of the world, there is no better time than now to talk about it. The original topic was “Is AGI near?” and I thought about this after reading OpenAI’s 4.5 model announcement last month. If you read it carefully, you will see how it mentioned that the responses are more “human-like” and then in a user use-case, I saw it offering practical advice to a user who prompted that they are feeling low after failing a test. This brings me back to my original question “Where are we heading with AI?”

To be honest, I don’t have the answer to the question. In fact, it is hard for anybody to correctly predict what’s going to happen and how AI is going to change our lives. As someone in tech, I already see the changes. For us, we now write code faster since it is easier to research, understand, and get help, and this has also brought a lot of non-tech people into coding (you all are probably aware of vibe-coding). My take on this - it is great for those who understand code and are using it as a “copilot.” For others, it might be good for hobby/side projects, but if you are going to build a business out of it, the answer is no (we all know how the vibe-code SaaS went down).

AI is not yet able to write code that is secure and scalable, and it adds a lot of technical debt in my opinion. Software engineers are here to stay, and we have been through shifts like these for ages. The initial years are a bit rocky, but in the end, it creates more opportunities, and that is what I feel will happen with AI too.

Now comes the Ghibli image part that took over the internet since March 26th. What seems like harmless fun did get a lot of backlash from artists and people who love art. You can find some debates in the tweets here, and then people also drew an analogy to how calligraphy died because of the printing press and worried if the same is going to happen to art. If you ask me, AI is not able to think like humans or be creative like humans, and neither is it able to really personalize things (both art and text). The thinking ability is what makes us different, and it will also remain the case, so be it artists or engineers, nobody is going to be replaced. It is all about evolving and seeing how we can use tools like these to get more creative.

Another thing I noticed among my friends is using AI as a therapist. I made the below tweet, and surprisingly, the number went up from 3 to greater than 3 in just a few minutes. Some say AI is more comforting, there is no judgment, and it is also more accessible and cheaper than humans. A few said humans are using AI for therapy because AI is trained on heaps of data, and the responses are such that it makes us “feel good” about ourselves, instead of asking questions, making us think, or having a conversation that a human therapist is capable of. If you ask me, AI still lacks “emotional quotient (EQ)” and it cannot be a replacement for things like mental health that need special care and understanding. It is an easier resort for us because we grew up not taking mental health seriously (at least in Indian households), and the thought of having to spend $$$ on therapy goes against our mindset. I am also curious about all the possibilities of AI, but medical is one thing that I wouldn’t trust AI with. I am not only consenting to use my personal health records as training data, but also risking my life (as somebody who uses AI a lot, trust me when I say it makes a LOT of mistakes).

With all of these examples, one pattern that I noticed is that the general population is becoming more tech-savvy. For example, I saw people across all domains and ages using AI to generate Ghibli-inspired images. Something like AI, which is supposed to be very technical, is now being used by the masses. This creates awareness and change. Similar to how we saw the change when the internet became accessible and affordable in India. It did stall offline businesses for a while, but they all adapted and are now thriving, and it also ended up helping folks from remote parts of India to start making a living for themselves by posting online (Take for example Nancy Tyagi who went from stitching clothes at her home in UP to wearing her own stitched clothes in Cannes). What I mean to say by the end of it is, it is easy to be scared when we see something come close to the kind of work we do, but let’s use this opportunity to level up and use the tools to be even better. Nobody can rightly predict what the next few years with AI are going to look like, but what we can do is be more aware, read recent trends, upskill, and also pivot if necessary.

I will be eager to hear your thoughts on this. You can comment below, or also DM me @HaimantikaM.