The FUTURE is already here.

I've spent the last week reading and reflecting on my personal journey of the last 5 years as I watched this sub go from maybe 5-10 new posts a day to hundreds. Hundreds of comments, hundreds of posts, every single day. The growth and interest in the topic is getting harder to ignore.<br><br>I think we are all here because we are realized that there is a rude awakening coming. It's here, we're just not being hit yet. This is the calm before the storm. If you've been here for a while you've heard the terms "Human Intelligence" and "Artificial General Intelligence". It's the moment when AI surpasses our collective smartest minds on a variety of subjects. Some estimates say it's coming in the next 5 years, others estimate 10-15, but it is coming.<br><br>What will the world be like? The answer is scary. I hear so many say, "I don't care what AI does, because I won't let it touch my job/your children will have new jobs/etc." But the truth is, that's just not true. I am a senior programmer, and I've been writing code for nearly 20 years. I had a friend who is a genius in Java. Another who is a genius in .NET. Another who is a genius in Database design. And when ChatGPT came out, I started using it. I could write it a prompt on a project I've been working on that was more than 2 years old and it would generate the solution in about 5 minutes. The same thing happened to my friends when they tried it. It was stunning. I've been experimenting with ChatGPT, Claude 3 and Gemini. These are the 3 best systems out right now. Claude 3 has been the most impressive so far. But with all 3 I've been experimenting with how I can use them to make me better. Some of you might hear this and just think it's another one of those "AI can't do that" scenarios.<br><br>But I went on a journey to realize how wrong that mindset really is. If you look at what AI does poorly, those are the interactions we should expect to last quite a while. Emotional intelligence, creativity, explaining complex tasks, etc. But if you learn to interact with AI the way a human interacts with another human, you start to realize that it's already here. AI can learn to get better at anything you ask it to learn. It's what I call the "Human AI Shift". This is the moment when each of us begin to realize that we have a partner that is always on the same page as us.<br><br>What does that really mean? It means that AI is always capped at a level equal to human intelligence, because it needs to learn from our intelligence. Some experts call this "a human in the loop." This is why AI will never reach the level of human creativity, because it will always need a human to prompt it, instruct it and guide it. We will always be on the same playing field together.<br><br>The only difference is that AI can operate at a scale that we can't. AI can process information faster than we can, learn faster than we can, communicate faster than we can. But if we learn to harness that information by learning to communicate effectively with it, then we learn to harness that power ourselves.<br><br>I've been experimenting with a project that I've been working on for years now that has been on the backburner. I asked ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini to each write a brand new approach to the solution. Then I asked them to compare each others solutions. What I learned was that each approach was different, unique, and that I alone could not have come up with 3 solutions in 3 days that were of such quality. But by learning to work with AI, I could. I learned to communicate with it, and it with me. I learned what prompts to use, how to ask questions and how to guide it to the solution. I learned how to ask it to compare solutions and present what it thinks is best.<br><br>We truly are standing on the shores of a new world. I'm excited to see what the future brings, but it's clear that we don't have to wait for the future anymore. The future is already here. We just have to learn how to tap into it.<br><br>What I learned so far:<br><br>1.) Train yourself to communicate with AI effectively. It's already smarter than you, but it will only get smarter if you learn to communicate with it. What prompts will it respond to? What prompts will it fail at? How can you ask questions effectively?<br><br>2.) Use multiple AI sources. Each has it's strengths and weaknesses, so learn to play to those and use them together to accomplish things you thought you alone could never do.<br><br>3.) Take a step back and look at what you're doing. If you've been doing something for a few years, maybe it's time to take a step back, look at yourself, and ask yourself if it's time to start grappling with the reality of change.<br><br>4.) We are not in a time of transition, we are in a time of evolution. Our jobs and livelihoods are not under attack, we are being presented with new opportunities to excel and grow. It's time for us to start recognizing this and growing with it.<br><br>But this conversation has only just started. I'm excited for where it will go and I'm excited to hear from the community here.<br><br>**EDIT:** I get a lot of interactions and comments, so I apologize if I don't respond to you. Please know that I'm reading what you post. I just don't have the bandwidth to respond to everyone.