Artificial Intelligence – Brilliant, But at What Cost? 🤖

I'll be the first to admit it. AI has helped me enormously.

From quoting concrete jobs and reading plans to researching products and finding information, it's been a game changer. In many ways, I reckon it's better than Google.

But here's what concerns me. Where does all this end?

I've actually sat in Teams meetings with people who've offered to have AI practically run my entire business.

Invoicing, quoting, following up customers, sourcing new work. You name it.

And get this. I can even have AI ringing people all day looking for work on my behalf!

Sounds fantastic, doesn't it?

But hang on a minute. Is that really the world I want to live in?

I've been concreting since 2004. Everything I've learnt has come from experience, making mistakes, asking questions and working alongside people who know their trade.

And that's something I wouldn't change for anything.

Now we've got technology that can give us answers in seconds. You don't even have to spend hours researching something anymore.

But what happens when the next generation stops asking questions and learning things for themselves?

Will we eventually reach a point where nobody actually knows how to do anything without asking a computer first?

And here's another thing. AI doesn't always get it right. I've caught it making mistakes myself. The worrying part is how confidently it can give you a completely wrong answer!

Don't get me wrong. I use AI and I'll continue using it. But there's a big difference between having something assist you and having it do absolutely everything for you.

Thankfully, at the moment, AI isn't standing behind a trowel or putting a non-slip finish on someone's driveway.

But who knows? Maybe in another ten years I'll have a robot standing next to me complaining about the weather, asking what time we're knocking off! 😂

I'm not against progress. I'm just wondering how much of ourselves we're prepared to hand over along the way.

Are we using AI to help us learn, or are we slowly letting it replace the need to learn?

And more importantly, what sort of world are we creating for the next generation?

I'm genuinely interested to hear what everyone else thinks.

Would you be comfortable having an AI assistant ring you, organise your work, handle your finances and make decisions on your behalf?

Or would you rather deal with an actual person?

Tell me in the comments below. This should be an interesting conversation!

Cheers, Benno 🍻

Just a concreter with 20-odd years of experience, a sense of humour and a few things to get off his chest. Welcome to Mumble Jumble.