Words are important

This might be the most obvious thing I’ll ever write, but choosing words carefully really is important.

Given all the noise around AI, Machine Learning, Large Language Models and the like, I’ve been really interested in how this topic is positioned in media. Especially where the area of economic impact is concerned.

Almost all of the reporting in mainstream media positions ‘AI’ as the thing which will ‘come’ for jobs and ‘destroy’ people’s livelihoods. This is quite obviously false and more than a little dangerous. True ‘Artificial Intelligence’ might well seek to eradicate humanity, but we’re not quite at that stage yet. What we see at the moment is the opportunity for one group of people (senior managers and executives in business) with an opportunity to deploy machine learning tools in a way which allows them to reduce their cost base. Let’s be clear. A robot will not take your job, unless a human being in a position of power chooses for one to do so.