Have you ever wondered whether or not artificial intelligence will have emotions? Of course you have. It’s why we’re all paranoid about AI. Well, there’s a new kind of AI in town. Plus a powerful CEO says future generations will only work 3.5 days a week due to AI automation. Sign us up, bro.

Let’s dig in.

Affective Computing - The Emotional Side of AI

Emotional intelligence (EQ) has been a hot topic over the last couple of decades, often overtaking the spotlight from its predecessor, IQ. It’s been said that those with high IQ often lack the balance of EQ to become effective leaders and so it’s all the rage to identify as a high emotional intelligence leader. And there’s data to back it up - high EQ leaders tend to build better teams, foster deeper trust, and drive better performance.

MIT’s media lab is breaking new ground on “Affective Computing.” While they have a diverse set of motivations and projects, the one that stands out for us is enabling “robots and computers to respond intelligently to natural human emotional feedback.”

Affective computing is the study and development of systems and devices that can recognize, interpret, process, and simulate human effects. Basically teaching computers to have empathy. There’s a plethora of workforce applications here:

• Mood Metrics: Continuous mood-assessment tools that not only offer real-time feedback but also shape organizational strategies.

• Empathetic Virtual Companions: Chatbots that don’t just respond but feel and adapt, enhancing human-AI interactions.

• Customer Emotion Trackers: Innovations that provide companies with deeper insights by gauging real emotional reactions to their offerings.

• Emotionally Intelligent Training: Simulations that arm professionals in the area of emotional agility.

While the workforce and consumer advancements could be vast, it’s not without its viable concerns. Monitoring emotions may feel invasive and lead to ethical concerns. Plus misinterpreting emotions could lead to some really interesting HR discussions. (“I haven’t even had my coffee yet!”)

This one feels like an area of development to keep a close eye on, similar to Artificial General Intelligence.

(Source, Source)

The 3 ½ Day Work Week?

McKinsey recently released a report on the economic potential of generative AI and the dollar amounts are quite staggering - like trillions. Citing that their latest research estimates that generative AI’s impact on productivity could add $2.6 trillion to $4.6 trillion annually. That’s a lot of dough.

Part of the research in the 68-page report states that employees could scale back on their working hours thanks to technology being used to automate some of their activities. Generative AI and other emerging technologies have the potential to automate the tasks which take up 60% to 70% of employee’s time at the moment.

Jamie Dimon is the well-known, often controversial, CEO of America’s biggest bank JP Morgan. He states thousands of people at the bank are already using generative AI technologies. Activities such as catching costly errors, making trades on customer’s behalf, and market research, which are traditionally completed by a human, are transferring over to AI.

But he says people should take a deep breath. (easy to say when you’re a billionaire, Jamie.) He also made some other wild predictions that our children will live to 100 and not have cancer because of AI technology and that they’ll probably only be working three-and-a-half days a week. The last two can’t come soon enough.

Yes, employees could scale back their work due to technology replacing the monotonous tasks but those of us who don’t have billions of dollars in our own banks fear that our entire jobs could be replaced. We think his comments are a little “ivory-towerish” but regardless there’s truth to the matter. AI automation is coming fast.

Best sharpen up your AI skillz.

Source

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