Note #2 to Sookie: You Need to Start Using AI "TODAY"
These notes are for 'Ken' and 'Sookie,' the American names my young Korean immigrant parents adopted while navigating profound change as they moved to the US in the 1970’s. In the notes within this blog, I imagine them as young adults again, but now encountering change and uncertainty from today's AI shifts – Sookie with potential job uncertainty, Ken with business disruption. Drawing inspiration from their historical resilience as young immigrants facing the unknown, I'm compelled to write with empathy and offer truly helpful thoughts for anyone navigating AI's rapid evolution. Remember, this isn't financial or direct strategic advice, but a perspective to encourage your own thoughtful consideration. I do not identify myself as their son in these notes, but in reality, I write with a son’s heart.
Dear Sookie,
I have so much on my mind with AI that it’s hard for me to figure out where to start. A few days ago, I saw this report in Tech Crunch where the Shopify CEO told his company this:
“Before asking for more headcount and resources, teams must demonstrate why they cannot get what they want done using AI,” Lütke wrote in the memo, which he shared publicly on social media Monday. “What would this area look like if autonomous AI agents were already part of the team? This question can lead to really fun discussions and projects.”
I think I can safely say that everyone’s job will be disrupted by AI agents in some way, although I do have thoughts on what types of jobs may be more vulnerable. Remember from my recent video that AI Agents will be accelerated by growth in large-language model (LLM) technology. Let me be as clear as possible:
The people who have strong LLM skills will accelerate their success with AI Agents. You need to start learning how to use LLMs and figuring out how you could use them to make your current job more efficient.
Most people ask me so many questions about what books, training videos, and resources that they could read “before they start actually playing around with the tools”. This is the wrong approach. JUST START NOW WITH THE TOOLS.
I won’t go into detail on why I say this, but I will compare it to the difference in learning how to speak English between another human (a process that has many decades of proven helpful educational resources that have been created) as compared to learning how to speak empathetically to an alien. Generative AI is a form of alien technology and we are still learning how to speak to it and get the most out of our interactions with it.
I need to keep this note brief and will send you many notes in the future, but let me end with a few bullet points on things to consider as you move forward in trying to grow your LLM skills.
Do not let fear or despair prevent you from starting. You’ve done this before. You just had to learn English and deal with rapid learning requirements. Most people, if they look back on their lives, have navigated extreme change and have come out on top. MOVE AND ACT.
Only use paid versions of chat LLMs, like ChatGPT Pro or Claude Pro. You can read this article to understand why. When it comes to your current company, only use the AI solutions that they approve everyone to use because they could lose access to their company’s data. In the future, a company’s worth will largely be their differentiated data and you do not want to be the person who leaks that data by using unapproved tools.
Accelerate your learning by playing around with prompt engineering. Here is a video that I like where this individual breaks down Google’s Prompting Essentials course in 20 minutes. I recommend taking that free course, but I think you can get by with first just watching this video and giving it a shot. By the way, I don’t know this lady in the YouTube video and I haven’t watched her other videos, so I’m just recommending this one for now. Who knows, she might have awesome other videos!
Okay, this note has been way too long. It’s going to take you months to play around with prompt engineering, but I will keep writing you notes while you are growing your skills and experience with LLMs.
I’ll end with answering a question that you recently asked me, which is, “Why do you seem so hopeful in all of this?” My answer is simply that there are some of us that feel like we have been waiting our whole lives for this period of time. The timing of learning about word embeddings (the pre-cursor technologies to generative AI transformers) in graduate school and being a total tech nerd growing up somehow allows me to understand how all this AI stuff works, even though the technology is changing and growing every day. Sometimes I feel like I was made for this time, whatever that means. I would be even more excited about these times, but I also understand that many people are concerned and scared for the future because of AI. I’m going to do my best to do my part to help.
Sincerely,
Dr. Joe, Your AI Doctor
My notes to Sookie will always be free, as I understand employees often navigate workplace changes with fewer resources and support systems. My notes to Ken will be offered at an accessible price point designed to be a worthwhile investment for businesses of any size looking to adapt to AI changes.