Yes, artificial intelligence is a revolution in itself and holds great potential, but companies might have overly optimistic expectations. Brad Lightcap, the Chief Operating Officer of OpenAI (the creator of ChatGPT), aimed to temper these expectations in a recent interview with CNBC, cautioning that the widespread belief that AI could swiftly revolutionize businesses overnight is mistaken.
I believe the exaggeration lies in the notion that, in one fell swoop, it could mean a substantial change for the company, stated Lightcap. He also referred to the frequent encounters with companies expecting immediate and complete solutions from AI: We talk to many companies that come to us wanting to hang their long-standing desires on us: ‘We want revenues to grow by 15% annually’ or ‘We want to cut X million dollars from this cost line.’ And almost never is there a miraculous solution.
OpenAI’s COO highlighted the inherent complexities in the business landscape, emphasizing the limitations of AI in its current state: You can never do something with AI that solves the problem completely. And I think that’s just a testament to the fact that the world is really big and messy, and these systems are still evolving, they’re still really in their infancy.
However, Lightcap also shed light on a lesser-known narrative, identifying an underrated aspect of AI’s impact: the significant ability of these systems to train and teach individual users. What we see, and I believe is underestimated, is the level of training and empowerment these systems create for their end users.
Furthermore, Lightcap emphasized that AI tools now enable tasks that were previously inaccessible: That story isn’t told, and what we hear from our users or clients is about individuals who now have ‘superpowers’ thanks to what the tools enable them to do, things these people couldn’t do before.
