As the resident technology lead at One Wealth Advisors, last week I had the opportunity to attend the Coachella of tech conferences: Dreamforce. Dreamforce is sponsored by Salesforce, a company that builds Client Relationship Management (CRM) systems for organizations, including OWA. The theme of this year’s conference was Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) and how it can help different types of companies, including Financial Planning firms, in a variety of areas, such as predictive analytics, risk management and AI enhanced customer solutions.
As I rushed between sessions, I wondered if these AI systems are pushing people to become disconnected from reality. One session I attended changed my view in a way I did not expect. In a crowded and dimly lit amphitheater, will.i.am from the hip hop band, the Black Eyed Peas, shared his ideas on democratizing AI. He’s addressing this through an AI powered messenger app for creative collaboration called Fyi.AI. The moderator asked if he was afraid of what the impact of AI-generated music will have on artists in the industry. He responded by saying that he recently listened to the best song he’s ever written, produced and sang. Only it wasn’t him that created it – AI did. will.i.am further explained that, although the song was amazing, it wasn’t him that wrote it. As an artist, inputting the command into AI and listening to the outcome did not have the same effect of expressing himself. Music is no longer a creative outlet when an algorithm does everything for you.
I think most people, especially people in the creative industry, can relate to will.i.am. In an environment of ever-growing technologies that utilize bots and AI, I believe that people will continue to seek out the human connection and the creativity in the way we choose to express ourselves.
