How you can prepare for AI in the workforce

(InvestigateTV) — From the classrooms to the workplace to nearly every website you visit, artificial intelligence is changing some aspects of how we live.

It has been a dominant topic in the news, with names like Anthropic and Elon Musk frequently mentioned. But how it works can still cause confusion.

We turned to Neil Johnson, a leading researcher on the technology, to break down the basics of AI.

Johnson is a professor of physics and data science at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He studies artificial intelligence and has written about its impact extensively.

To put it simply, Johnson described AI as “a combination of computer hardware and software.”

“It’s been trained on everything we’ve ever said and put online,” he explained. “It’s been trained on all of that. So suddenly we have a machine that we can ask. How does it work? It has software in it that looks up the answers and extends them - it joins the dots between things it’s seen.”

Johnson said developing AI requires significant financial resources.

“You need a lot of money to have the machinery and the software to be able to train it,” Johnson said. “That’s why we’ve only got a few companies. And so that’s why all of this discussion about policies, dangers are always focused around these companies.”

Johnson said knowing how to use AI tools provides job security.

“Job security - 100% for the person who knows how to use AI tools and can oversee their use in some domain,” Johnson said.

He believes AI will change how people work, but said those who learn to use it, question it and apply its answers will remain important in the workplace.

“There will always be that human element that’s needed alongside AI tools,” Johnson said. “I do think a lot of people are going to lose jobs who don’t then necessarily embrace it.”

Johnson’s advice is to think of AI less as something to compete against and more as a tool that provides a competitive edge.

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