Gen AI Protecting Our Money and Well-Being
Something out there is beginning to know us INSIDE and OUT …
ChatGPT has taken the world by storm after making its debut on November 30, 2022. Did you know it only took ChatGPT 5 days to reach 100 million users, compared to 75 days in 2010 for Instagram and 10 months in 2004 for Facebook?
Currently, ChatGPT is the most popular form of Gen AI due to its ability to interact human-like conversations. Other amazing things it does include assist with writing essays, codes and even composing music!
Well then, what is Gen AI?
Gen AI or Generative AI, is a type of artificial intelligence technology that is trained on very large sets of data to learn patterns and structures in order to create new content in a superhuman’s capacity.
Now, compare this to how humans function and we can get a sense that Gen AI is like a relative (the kind we like to invite back!) Gen AI contains large datasets, just like the neural network in our human brain. It learns patterns and structures repeatedly, similar to humans attending university and studying non-stop. It creates new content, just like humans making new discoveries. So yes, it definitely feels like a close cousin!
But can Gen AI help with inflation? Let’s find out.
Gen AI Looking “Outside-In” on Inflation
(Note: The inflation policy in the United States is highlighted here due to the fact US dollar is the world reserve currency and its movement has a ripple effect throughout the global economy).
We are now living in a world where inflation remains a persistent problem. It appears the only viable solution for Federal Reserve (the Fed) is to continue to increase interest rates at warp speed, ultimately impacting everyone’s cost of living but especially hurting the most vulnerable population. The Fed doesn’t really know what else to do because its tools are mainly used for lending-driven inflation (like the 1970’s when excessive bank lending was the problem). What we are experiencing currently is a deficit-driven inflation (like the 1940’s when post-war stimulus was the culprit).
We all feel it now — we are left with higher prices, skyrocketing borrowing rates, and devaluation in savings (picturing our money evaporating, not a pretty sight).
There is also a boomerang effect the Fed doesn’t want us to think about. The US National Debt is the largest in history, currently sitting at nearly $33 trillion USD. The higher the interest rate, the higher the interest owed on the National Debt. Unlike consumers and businesses where the ultimate path for inability to pay is bankruptcy, the Fed will simply print more money, as long as the debt is denominated in the local currency. The irony here is printing money causes inflation, which is the current problem we are trying to resolve in the first place!
Inflation, at its most simplistic view, is attributed to a rise in prices of goods and services we consume. Currently, to get a measure on inflation, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) conducts surveys with selected households. The purpose is to collect data on large or recurring purchases directly from respondents, which they are expected to recall for a period of 3 months or longer. There is also another survey that collects data on frequently purchased items, “which can be difficult to recall even a few weeks later” according to the BLS website.
Why are we still using these age-old methods of collecting data when we live in a world where information is digitally available at our finger tips? Which method is more accurate — trying to recall ourselves what we bought at the grocery store 3 weeks ago or gathering data directly on the goods we buy in REAL-TIME?
Looking “outside-in”, Gen AI can be trained on large sets of external data captured from manufacturing to distribution to retail to payment. It can learn the patterns of purchases across many individuals and businesses, not just the selected survey participants. A Prompt Engineer (the newest and hottest job in town) can then customize the interactions with Gen AI to retrieve information on inflation and its parameters, i.e., price change, industry, location, profit margin, and to top it off, settlement in cash or credit. Unlike the government method, there is no second guessing where inflation may come from because the scope of the analysis is no longer limited and it can also be conducted in real-time.
From these findings, the government can analyze and tackle the root of the problem causing inflation and target the specific areas to control it. For example, if inflation is specific to certain goods, then capping profit margins or rationing items may be a better option than simply changing interest rates.
As an added bonus, we can prompt Gen AI on the usefulness of interest rates as a method of controlling inflation by studying consumption patterns before and after rate changes across all sectors, like giving the government a report card.
The point is, with Gen AI’s help, there are other ways we can explore to control inflation.
Gen AI looking “Inside-Out” with Our Minds
The expectation is, the more we possess the happier we become, right? We idolize famous and successful people for what they have. We believe they lead happier lives, are more satisfied, have fewer problems and less stress. They are our inspiration. We want to be THEM!
Now there is a way to prove whether this is indeed a TRUE statement.
Gen AI has the ability to read us “inside-out”, that is, it is able to read our brainwaves to reveal our thoughts, our images and therefore our emotions. It can now translate private thoughts of human subjects into texts and phrases by reading fMRI scans, which measure the small changes in blood flow to different areas of the brain without any surgical implants, while people are listening to a story or even silently imagining one. (yes, this is getting freaky…)
When our thoughts are positive, we tend to feel happy, satisfied and secured. What happens if we have access to the brainwaves of our idols? Can we confirm our predictions that they are truly happy or will we be disappointed?
Machines reading our thoughts is great news for people who have lost the ability to speak and allows paralyzed people to write just thinking of writing. However, this may not spell good news for the general public for mental privacy reasons. After all, the best place to keep our secrets is inside our minds right?
We often don’t say what we mean and don’t mean what we say or do what we say. While this concept is terrifying for making new friends, gaining meaningful relationships and trust, Gen AI’s ability to read brainwaves and validate what we are really thinking compared to what we say is truly redefining our social interactions with one another. This new technology may prove beneficial before making life’s biggest decisions. (As a side note, remember that love is BLIND. Gen AI may be too practical to understand true love).
Luckily this mind-reading technology is still at its infancy and fMRI scanning machines are not readily available, so our inner secrets are still safe, FOR NOW. Perhaps as a human race if we know our thoughts are transparent we may be more inclined to be good people. Only time will tell…
How to Nurture this New Digital Baby
With every new technology, we first need to embrace it, nurture it and not abuse it. When we were first introduced to social media, we only knew how to embrace the good and we were blind to the bad. At the time we lacked the understanding of algorithms, which are designed to prioritize content that users see. Our wants and habits were shaped by these algorithms, whether we knew it or not. It’s time to move away from the path of least resistance.
With Gen AI, we need to take control from the start this time. It is almost equivalent to welcoming a new baby imprinted upon us. Whatever we do, the baby learns from us. It is essential we feed it with unbiased and secured data to limit potential harm down the road. As we speak, the world came together in the AI Safety Summit 2023 in UK this past week to discuss how to mitigate risks in AI through coordinated international efforts.
Machines and humans have reached a pivotal point where we must try to co-exist in harmony and augment each other’s abilities. There are many wrinkles still need to be ironed out and many changes which will require agility. However, please keep this in mind — we as humans will write our history books, our way.
