From the Greatest Generation, like my dad, who relied on rubber cement to piece together ads and spinning vinyl to dance with my mom, to the Baby Boomers hooked on their beloved ‘crackberries’ and texting, to Gen Xers proud of their constant online presence, and Millennials growing up with iPhones, each generation has witnessed technological leaps. However, my grandchildren’s generation will be the first to embrace AI from an early age. While AI brings remarkable advancements, let’s not forget the importance of our human sixth sense and intuitive understanding. I dare say, put an expert in the subject matter against AI any day of the week, and you’ll witness the ingenuity and creativity that sets us apart—the secret weapon against the machines! After all, there’s no algorithm that can replicate our unique blend of experience, intuition, and good old-fashioned common sense.

And for a real-world perspective, I turn to my friend since high school, Dave Balkin, PhD. Dave is a scientist with a storied career at IBM, and he provides present-day perspective to my thoughts.

“As you well know, engines that could historically be fixed with the tap of a hammer are being (or have been) replaced with computerized mechatronic systems that contain dozens, if not hundreds, of semiconductors. The problems with these systems can now only be properly diagnosed by complex computerized test systems. Consistent with your point, as always, only those with the required technical expertise (experience) will be able to ultimately fix the latest iteration of technology. Unfortunately, as we become dependent on AI, users will need to cultivate much greater critical thinking skills to create efficient AI prompts that yield meaningful outputs and discernment abilities to properly assess the correctness of AI outputs, which are only as good as their (hopefully uncorrupted) data sources.”