Linked – At ILTACON, Anticipation for the Shiny Object

Bob Ambrogi left the ILTA conference in Nashville feeling like Generative AI was the shiny alien object that came to town. Everyone talks about it, everyone gawks at it, but it sits there. I agree with his final paragraph when it comes to AI:

Count me among the gawkers and the wonderers. I leave Nashville no less excited about this shiny object, no less curious – no less, I will admit, enthusiastic – about what it will deliver. But I am still, for the most part, still waiting, only anticipating what has yet to materialize.

I think that nails it on the head for many of us. We see the possibilities, we are eager to see it do more, and we anticipate how our work world will change in the near future. On the other hand, we are seeing just a small part of what has been promised. We’ve been promised earth-shattering changes that haven’t appeared yet. AI tools are being promoted as world-changers when all they do is help us accomplish some tasks a little quicker. That’s nice, but that’s not why the big tech companies and venture capitalists invest billions of dollars in the technology. They’re looking for something else; we just haven’t seen it yet.

Will we ever? Will the shiny object wander away again without revealing itself?

It’s easy to walk away from a conference like this one with the impression that it’s just a matter of time. On the other hand, we must also acknowledge that the AI technology we see in front of us is just OK. It’s not world-changing, and it’s sometimes downright awful. As I’ve said before, will the huge investments ever pay off? We are all waiting to see. How long will we continue to talk about the future of AI instead of how it’s changed our world?

https://www.lawnext.com/2024/08/at-iltacon-anticipation-for-the-shiny-object.html

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