AIBU to hesitate over AI training at work?

[IlovePhilMitchell]

Are you going to embrace AI at work or wait till it’s forced upon you?

I work for a large corporate, and lately the opportunity to do a voluntary course to become more fluent in AI/co pilot at work has come up. It’s a paid course and the expectation would be to use it in your role and team. Im tempted but I feel like a turkey voting for Christmas. Am I being rediculous? 🤣

On the other hand I’m early 40s and not retiring anytime soon so I better get with the times. I feel like younger people will come into the workplace and be really good at this stuff.

No we didn’t. I don’t know a single person who resisted email. No one thought powerpoint was dangerous and clung on to using an OHP.

This is a completely different situation. People are being required to train it to replace them.

No they aren't. This is hyperbole.

The more you use AI, the more you begin to understand its strengths and also its weaknesses.

And knowing its weaknesses and where you, as a thinking human being, can add value, is immensely valuable!

Exactly. Not hyperbole to note that people are being required to train AI to replace them. I have a friend in the same situation.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgr7nxve05go

this reports workers having to train the AI that replaces them

i already use grok to write fictional stories / projects so its just another tool to me

thats the thing i use grok to write stories i direct and it writes, but if you know where its likely to make errors you can rewrite parts etc

Surely if you're using AI to write stories the point is completely lost? You've not written the story if AI is doing any of it for you!

i still need to guide, direct, add the characters, choose the plot, choose the actions , make the story make sense, etc
grok just helps filling out the details, rather than me getting stuck

grok is just a tool the same as a hammer, without the person directing to use the tools then theres no results

It’s so shit that people who don’t want to use AI and are worried about the environment and the future are now being coerced into using it with the threat of ‘you’ll get left behind’. I’m not saying I disagree with that, but how awful that this is where we are now. Personal freedom and principles are being eroded. What a nightmare.

My job is completely physical and my employers haven’t asked me to engage with AI at all. I don’t use a computer at all so there’s nothing it could do for me at the moment. There is a small amount of (largely optional) admin associated with the work, which I do at home in my free time and I do it using my brain and a piece of paper and a pen. Very grateful to be in this position.

yet no one says about using computers, or the servers that the pcs need for the internet and the environment etc, ai may have increase the data centres but they existed long before ai

I get so much benefit from AI at work, so have signed up for all the training. I think it’s marvellous.

The details are the actual story, how weird!

I wouldn't trust AI to answer phones and talk like an actual human being, read and process handwritten letters nicely or send an appropriate email.
It could possibly do some finance-y tasks but it would be quicker for me to search for them across databases, folders and external websites.

Bearing in mind the first AI Google answer often has an error in it then I won't trust it with my work.

I’ve been worried about servers for a long time- way before I’d even heard of AI. I minimise my computer use, which I’m able to do as my job is physical. I routinely clear out my emails, photos and apps because I feel constantly guilty about my impact on the planet. There is nothing else I can personally do about the servers and AI centres.

I’m surprised your company are this late to the party to be honest. Yes you need to get your grips with it soon if you’re in a role that AI can be involved in. Resisting it will not do you any favours, so many companies and people are using it now.

I heard the comment ‘you won’t necessarily be replaced with AI, but you could be replaced by someone who knows how to use AI’. Knowing how to use AI tools will soon be as important as knowing how to use Word, PowerPoint, excel etc

I'm an accountant in manufacturing. We have Co-pilot, and we did do a bit of "training". I ask it Google type questions, which can be useful,

I've not seen any way in which these chat bots can actually "do" any of the work I do.

I don't need my emails re-writing.

What is it they are supposed to "take over"?

If a director uses CGI to build a spectacular fantasy city on screen, we don't say the computer made the movie. The director did. This is no different I am the author, Grok is just the digital brush.

We do say the computer made the movie. Avatar, Marvel Films etc are all the poorer for being mostly computer generated. At least Titanic, Jurassic Park etc are mostly real with models and CGI doing the really fiddly bits. (I sound old 😂)

ok you got me there, ill admit its not 100 pecent me writing it but overall i set the broader picture or story

at a guess ai is the ghost writer

In my field it is very much AI or die. There is no choice. Refusing or waiting would be like not learning to use a typewriter or a computer when they are introduced to the office.