By Business & Finance 
Pictured: Matthieu Courtecuisse, CEO, Sia Partners
Now that the initial buzz and virality around ChatGPT has worn off, we can look at what is really at stake. Matthieu Courtecuisse, CEO, Sia Partners, explores the issues.
This piece was originally published on Ireland INC.com
To put things into perspective, many players have been working on generative AI for a long time and are further advanced. Other lesser-known disruptive technologies are arriving at a fast pace, including those that deal with images, videos, sounds, satellites and homomorphisms. A new sequence in the short history of artificial intelligence is beginning, marked by gains in performance and, above all, in supervisory autonomy.
Transformation
The field of intellectual creativity is entering a major transformation, driven by the reinvention of the man-robot duo. The era of post-creation is thus beginning. Like the role of the calculator in mathematics, so-called generative artificial intelligence can replace humans in certain unitary tasks such as reading, writing, or conversing. Above all, it can increase their capacity, thanks to the ingestion and cross-referencing of gigantic volumes of information, synthesisation and generation of raw textual material. There are still limitations to overcome, such as the loss of source traceability, time delay, interpretation errors and cognitive biases that take a long time to correct.
Despite these limitations, we are living in a real cognitive revolution, as evidenced by the number of domains impacted, and the upheaval of supply and demand in general, including in schools and higher education, public policies, and even geopolitical relations.
Cost
The cost of these technologies is not extremely high and will be even less very soon. There will be no monopoly and investments will flow freely. To reference back to the example of the calculator, which state or company could not benefit from the cognitive applications of AI? However, if a calculator only provided correct answers half of the time, it would not be accepted. The critical issue of accuracy calls for the regulation of AI.
Deployment at scale will require significant funding to meet the standards of precision and accuracy: tens of billions of euros per language ecosystem. The head-to-head battle between the major tech players is just beginning, and regulators will not be able to block acquisitions or alliances.
Even more important will be the pace and quality of the adoption of this new cognitive world, through the relevance of use cases, their natural insertion into experiments of all kinds, and data collection strategies. The premium will be on speed of execution.
Consequences
The new cognitive paradigm in the world of work will have two major consequences in the post-creation era. The first is computer code, some estimate that programming productivity could increase tenfold, leading to an acceleration in digitisation and the deployment of metaverses. The second transformation will be the revolution of the desktop, by adding a series of new cognitive functionalities to office automation and remote working, such as summarisation, automatic generation of table of contents, or editorial auto-completion. The productivity gains are huge and post-creation will be the only differentiator.
Each company will launch its own Small Data strategy in the face of the Big Data-approach of these data-hungry models. Indeed, without enough internal data, it is impossible to leverage the power of ChatGPT-type models. It is also impossible to train them to the necessary level of expertise and context, in areas such as product, customer experience, logistics, human resources or legal. The abundance of data for some companies will finally find new outlets, leaving others facing an irreversible decline in productivity.
Sia Partners is a world leading next generation consulting firm, placing data science and AI-driven consulting solutions in the hands of leading client organisations.
If you are keen to know more, please contact Gary O’Sullivan (gary.osullivan@sia-partners.com), Managing Partner UK & Ireland or Catherine O’Doherty (catherine.odoherty@sia-partners.com), Partner and Head of the Dublin Market for Sia Partners global.
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