Tomorrow Today, how AI impacts on how we work, live and think. Reviewed

By @SimonCocking. Available from Amazon here. See more about its author: Donal Daly

The book focuses primarily on the impact of AI on in the knowledge economy – particularly Sales, Marketing, and Customer Service. It will encourage you to embrace the arrival of AI (particularly the Augmented variety) as a positive force for the enablement of knowledge workers and will help you to decide what tasks currently being undertaken by your knowledge workers, can be offloaded to the machine.

This is a good read in terms of giving a good overview of some of the bigger trends to expect as AI gets smarter. The last chapter on algorithmic bias is very topical, and a lot more interesting than it might sound. There is a growing awareness that the auto-prompts in the world’s biggest search engine are a long way from delivering value-free, neutral results. This machine bias is problematic, and often a direct representation of the prejudices and beliefs of the, to now, overwhelmingly white and male programmers creating the code. This may change, and improve over time, but until it does, it is a good illustration that ‘technosolutionists’ (might not be a word yet, but give it time) do not yet have the best solution to everything.

Chapter two, on ‘Augmented Intelligence maximises human potential’ explores some interesting ideas, and offers the following thought ” augmented intelligence is the modern-day version of providing a bicycle for the mind, and as we get ready for tomorrow, it can help us to optimise human performance, today”.  This very much follows Ray Kurzweil’s predictions of a time, coming soon, when it will be unusual for humans to not rely on AI in their daily lives. You could argue that we may already be there, especially in places like China, where over 90% of all online browsing takes place via a smart phone (our current, imperfect AI tool).

We are living in interesting, fast moving times, and this book is a useful, short, accessible primer to trends to be aware of and look out for.

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