I don’t code. Why should I care about AI?
“I don’t understand it.”
“I’m scared of it.”
“We shouldn’t rely on AI too much — we’ll risk over-dependence and AI taking over the world.”
I hear you. I feel you. I understand where you’re coming from. But as a former non-believer myself, I’m here to introduce you to the positive role AI tools can play in your life and the use cases that opened my mind.
I’m a student in Global Development who has spent time working in nonprofits; if you’re like me and have a minimal technical or coding background, it can be hard to see the role of artificial intelligence in your work, school, or life.
But if you’re also like me, there have been times you wanted to make a recipe with leftover ingredients in the fridge or needed to send an email asking for a catering quote. Maybe you want to plan an upcoming trip and are curious about must-sees for three days in a new city.
Until now, these repetitive tasks have been a necessary pillar of our existence in the world, the ever-familiar Google search, list building, or email writing a constant task in our everyday trudge through our to-do lists.
But a few months ago, my day-to-day tasks were revolutionized by the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Never before had I resonated with the phrase “artificial intelligence,” not fully understanding the algorithms behind it or seeing how it related to my school or nonprofit work.
Almost overnight, my Twitter feed was overtaken by “ChatGPT prompts to save you time.” Curious, I followed example prompts to see if the tool could truly make my life more efficient. I started by asking ChatGPT to make a plant-based banana bread recipe with applesauce. Immediately, I was hooked by the pace of ChatGPT’s response and its crisp, conversational style.
Soon enough, I was prompting ChatGPT to help me generate company names based on our product and key values at a hackathon. I went from being an AI skeptic to using AI tools to help me build lists of sportswear companies and create writing prompts to practice with.
AI programs like ChatGPT can be thought of as a calculator — a tool to enhance our skills and save us time, rather than something to reject for the sake of tradition. By embracing AI tools and beginning to understand how they work, we can utilize them for our own needs, even if it feels like our jobs are far removed from the tech industry.
Learning how to use AI will only strengthen our skillset and allow us to shape the future of the workplace.
Regardless of your current opinions on artificial intelligence, I encourage you to give tools like ChatGPT a try. See if you can be spared from writing another out-of-office email or making a list of Vancouver’s best places to see. Just maybe, you’ll be inspired to embrace AI as an assistant who can generate recipes for your next holiday gathering.
I have only scratched the surface of the use cases of artificial intelligence in our working and personal lives, but I hope I’ve inspired you to be curious about AI’s growing and evolving role in the workplace and in life.
This article was written for QMIND — Canada’s largest undergraduate community for leaders in disruptive technology.
P.S. if you’re curious to learn more, I recommend checking out these articles:
