The future of AI: expanding applications we're just beginning to grasp

If you’ve watched the rise of narrative-based generative artificial intelligence (AI), then you’re likely as conflicted about the long-term outcomes of this magnificent leap in computing technology as I am.

On one hand, we have revered computer scientist and cognitive psychologist, Geoffrey Hinton, leaving his post at Google to sound the alarm. I don't want to be dramatic, but when the headlines in the Boston Globe and Daily Mail read “The Godfather of AI Has Some Regrets,” and we aren't even out of the starting blocks; that’s cause for concern.

On the other hand, we have a potent tool that can augment the way we work, learn, and live.

Janette Roush is the executive vice president of marketing and digital for New York City Tourism + Conventions. She’s spent more than two decades with industry-leading organizations and modern media agencies.

Paul McLeod, director of analytics at Simpleview, is a maverick in the data and insights space and runs Simpleview’s internal think tank known as the “Insights Group.”

Their keen insights show that we have an immensely powerful technology that can, in theory, be limitlessly scaled for tourism and beyond, but one we are only beginning to grasp.

AI has existed in various forms in industries like manufacturing, retail, healthcare, and logistics since the 1950s. But we seem to have reached a tipping point.

We’ve seen a massive leap in public awareness of AI over the last five years thanks, in part, to the popular attractiveness of language-based AI like ChatGPT. On top of that, living and working through a global pandemic has caused rapid global adoption of individualized, machine-based interactions.

It seems natural now.

Still, our understanding of how to wield this powerful new tool in critical areas like sustainability, food security, weather and climate predicting, economic modeling, manufacturing, and communication is expanding as fast as we can think.

New ideas on how to use AI are growing at a rate outpaced only by the technology itself. And I’m eager to see what’s next.