The week's developments on automation & the workplace, explained | 15.04.24

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Today’s newsletter features guest contributor Roger Spitz  — bestselling author, futurist, and founder of the Disruptive Futures Institute — as he shares 5 ways to activate your agency and thrive in an AI future.

Spitz breaks down 5 types of AI risk, drawing on his experience in AI investment and strategic foresight to provide actionable insights on how to manage them effectively. Find his opinion piece below, or read the full piece on the CogX Blog.

Also in focus, a new survey suggests AI training could help retain women in tech, a top Amazon exec says it’s a ‘myth’ robots steal jobs and the Wall Street's gruelling entry-level jobs being taken over by AI.

Find these stories and more below — including our productivity booster to help you excel in the AI-driven workplace.

— Charlie and the Research and Intelligence team

Ps. CogX Transatlantic Accelerator Early Bird offer ends TODAY: If you are or know a UK startup they can apply for over $20k worth of support to attend, exhibit and network at CogX Festival in LA on 7th May here

CogX Must Reads

5 Strategies to Activate Your Agency and Stay Relevant in the Age of AI

The stakes of Artificial Intelligence

Today, AI seems to be the answer to everything, irrespective of the question. AI’s potential for profound benefits comes face-to-face with existential risks. More nuanced than human extinction alone, these risks challenge our values, freedoms, even the trajectory of civilisation.

Algorithmic control, a growing shift from human judgement, subtly infiltrates our lives. It influences decisions about everything, from news feeds to job prospects, beliefs to allegiances. This erosion of agency and choice, gradual and often invisible, deserves far more attention than stereotypical doomsday scenarios.

Evolutionary pressure prioritises relevance. The pressure is on us to make more relevant decisions. But how?

The “Complex Five”: Know your Unknowns

We must understand the different types of uncertainty to anticipate our future relationships with AI.

• Known Knowns: Things we know that we know, like “the sun rises in the morning and sets at night.” For these, we use Michele Wucker’s definition of “Gray Rhino.” There is no uncertainty with Gray Rhinos; we might treat them as unknown, but they are certain.  

• Unknown Knowns: Things we think we know, but we find that we don’t understand them when they manifest. For example, increasing ocean temperatures and acidity levels prompted perfect conditions for jellyfish population growth. This increase then forced shutdowns from jellyfish clogs in the cooling systems of nuclear reactors around the world. Here, situations we believe we understand can become complex, as small changes drive larger, less predictable impacts. To describe such unknown knowns, Postnormal Times uses the term “Black Jellyfish.”

• Known Unknowns: Things we know we don’t know, including new diseases, impacts of climate change, and mass human migration. These are obvious, highly likely events, but few acknowledge them. We call these known unknowns “Black Elephants,” based on a term attributed to the Institute for Collapsonomics.

• Unknown Unknowns: Things that we don’t know that we don’t know. For these unpredictable outliers, we use Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s “Black Swans.”

• Butterfly Effects: The flapping wings of one majestic insect brings these animals together. The “Butterfly Effect,” defined by meteorologist Edward Lorenz, describes how small changes can have significant and unpredictable consequences. To illustrate, Lorenz described a butterfly flapping its wings influencing tornado formation elsewhere.

All these degrees of uncertainty share a common trait: ignorance, or absence of evidence, is not evidence of absence

… want to keep reading? Check out the full piece here on the CogX Blog.

Share your expertise! Want to be a guest contributor in our next issue? drop us a line at: editors@cogx.live. 

Also in Focus

🤖 Use of ChatGPT is on the rise, especially among younger adults. A new report shows 20% of employed people now use ChatGPT at work, up from 8% just last year. Younger workers (under 30) are the most likely to be using it.

🌍 AI training could help retain women in tech, new report shows. Over 40% of women surveyed expressed interest in AI, but more than 60% felt they needed more training on the technology. Women who had received AI training reported higher confidence and credibility among peers.

👀 AI is coming for Wall Street's gruelling entry-level jobs. Big banks are testing AI tools that can do analysts' work in seconds, potentially leading to significant cuts in hiring and pay for junior analyst positions.

Future of the Office

💼 Would you return to the office if your commute was company-funded? For many working from the office is fine, it's commuting that’s the pain. A new survey shows 83% of employees would consider returning to the office if their company paid for their commute.

👩🏻‍💻 Gender gap narrows as demand for IT jobs grows. A recent Financial Times report revealed that the proportion of women in the UK working in computer-related roles rose from 29% in 2019 to more than 32% throughout the last year.

AI & Automation

🦾 Stefano La Rovere, head of robotics at Amazon, said it’s a “myth” that robots and other technologies take jobs away from people. According to Stefano, the tech has enhanced over 50,000 jobs in European warehouses and created more than 700 new job categories within the company.

🇪🇺 AI is booming, but don't forget the human touch. The future of work is filled with AI, but that doesn't mean robots will take all the jobs.  While AI automates tasks and creates new opportunities, human skills are becoming even more valuable.

💸  AI's rapid rise leaves companies scrambling to adapt. 81% of employers recognise that new skills and approaches to work will be essential. However, 78% fear their organisations lack the ability to upskill their workforce quickly enough to keep pace.

Productivity Boosters

 Check out this week's top AI tools to supercharge your productivity

	PowerNote.app is a voice-powered daily journaling app that captures your life story by transforming spoken reflections into organised notes and auto-generated summaries.   Key features:  Voice-based note creation Effortless daily journaling Automatic transcription of speech  Pricing Model: Paid with Free Trial
	Dorik is a no-code website builder that empowers anyone to create professional sites with ease using drag-and-drop editing.   Key features:  No-code website building platform Simple drag-and-drop editor Customisable website templates                                             Pricing Model: Paid with Free Trial
	Canyon is an all-in-one job search platform that simplifies the application process with AI-powered tools for resume creation, autofill, interview prep, and application tracking.   Key features:  Comprehensive job application platform AI Resume Builder for tailored resumes Resume Score for optimisation                                   Pricing Model: Unknown

In case you missed it

Can the workforce upskill fast enough to keep up with the AI revolution? Andrew Ng, Landing AI's founder and CEO, weighs in on AI's impact on the job market and which companies are leading the charge in the AI landscape.

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