Will AI Impact Your Future?
My hot-take on how AI will shape the futures of engineers, academics, and PMs (oh, and creators too).
How close are we to machines taking over?
When will the terminator exist in the real world?
Who is going to make it through the inevitable AI apocalypse?
I’ll be answering none of those questions today (or probably ever).
I will, however, talk briefly about my take on how AI will impact a few categories of jobs including computer science, academics, and product management. This take is certainly a hot one, and, although I am trying my best to become more knowledgeable about AI, I am certainly no expert. So, if you disagree, please let me know why in the comments!
AI is going to make computer science obsolete
You heard that right. But hear me out before you report me to the hot-take police. AI is getting smarter every day. We now have the ability to speak into existence literally anything we can think of with Stable Diffusion, DALL-E 2, and MidJourney. Everything from creating images to music to business insights is becoming easier thanks to AI… and so is coding.
CoPilot is here and has wowed engineers with how amazing GitHub’s new AI pair programmer is. CoPilot can autogenerate code and even entire functions in real-time as you’re writing code. It’s truly spectacular.
But what’s next? One could imagine a future in which “engineers” just have to speak what they want into existence — their AI helper might just turn into an AI doer. What would this mean? This would inevitably result in a future in which not the ability to code but the ability to think is valued. Creativity is the top skill companies will hire for, not someone’s ability to copy from Stack Overflow (Kidding, kidding. Engineers I do love you).
But hold your horses. Of course, engineers would still be needed. They’d need to code the damn AI that will be taking their very jobs! So of course the engineer will never become obsolete. But imagine a world where checking code, running tests, optimization, and even making betas are all done by a computer. The only things engineers would do are 1. touch-ups to what the AI creates and 2. create the AI in the first place!? Is this so crazy?
And no, I’m not saying this will happen in the next 2, 5, 10, or even 20 years. But what will AI look like 50 years from now? That’s my guess.
Now, what does this mean for PMs and Academics?
I think there will be a HUGE increase in the number of researchers and academics. It will be even easier than ever to complete research and experiments thanks to AI. Plus, there can never be too many researchers, so I expect the total number to increase drastically.
Let’s take a step back. The increase in academics, researchers, and creatives will exponentially increase the productivity of society. More people than ever will be spending more time creating new technology and inventions — and they’ll be doing it at a faster rate than ever thanks to AI. I could not be more excited about what the future holds.
PMs, on the other hand, do have a job with a finite supply. There are only so many products that can be successful in the market. AI will create a huge demand for PMs and creative product thinkers, but unfortunately, AI can’t increase the total number of PMs out there in the world. As a result, due to supply and demand (thanks econ degree), only the best PMs will be hired — and they’ll be paid more than ever before. (Think, programmer salaries!!!)
But what about creators? Well, more than programming, AI will enable creators to speak into existence the graphics, designs, thumbnails, and more they want. Being a creator will be easier than ever — less time in Photoshop and Premiere — and, again, will benefit only those with a truly creative brain. Someone that can think of ideas for posts, videos, and graphics, and have them come to life with AI will be the next great creator of that time.
Again, this is all wayyyyyyy in the future, but the ability for AI to democratize programming is coming, and creatives, academics, and forward thinkers are going to benefit the most.
I know my view on AI is almost exactly the opposite of what many people think for the future… What do you think?
If you liked this and would like to read more, check out my last two blog posts: What questions are you not asking? or Is it possible to be too curious?
About Me!
Hey y’all!👋 My name is Luca. I’m a Partner @ Crescent Fund🌙 and a student @ UCLA. I love building, brainstorming🧠, and absolutely everything having to do with product and the startup world🚀.
Feel free to reach out to me via LinkedIn, Twitter, or my email — always happy to chat!
