AI futurist Zack Kass: “With Open-AI, society is on the verge of the most profound revolution in human history”

Alan Turing, who played a crucial role in Nazi code breaking during World War, said in 1952, “It seems probable that one the machine thinking method has started, it would not take long to outstrip our feeble powers. They would be able to converse with each other to sharpen their wits. At some stage therefore, we should have to expect the machines to take control”. 71 years later the rise of AI has been breath-taking wit Chat GPT reaching 100 million users in only two months.

Zack Kass explains that with Open AI we went from building systems that think in straight lines to building systems that think like your brain, in parallel. The human condition is going to change radically, we will have more time to develop our social skills, to better use our free time to develop our job satisfaction, to try to care about people, AI should also reduce suffering and cure some cancers.

AI is predicted to profoundly disrupt all work and organisations, including workplace-related matters. The potential impact and associated risks involve critical human right topics with considerable implications for diversity and equality in the workplace, existential risks that require government regulation: The IBA has recently set up a task force to help the industry navigate the risks and opportunities its adoption presents.

Kass warned that law firms not adopting this technology "will be left behind", but that they should adopt the technology safely and responsibly. “Most people were aware of this technology but they don’t use it, and I don’t understand why. For this revolution to work, we need to bring everyone into it.”

To end on a very positive note: new models gain more functions, older models get smaller and cheaper. These are great news for AI democratization. In a near future AI will become as common as the electrical grid or internet, go for GPT-4!