Years before OpenAI's ChatGPT showed the world what generative AI technology could do, venture capitalist Kai-Fu Lee saw the enormous potential of AI in the business market.
The Chairman and CEO of Sinovation Ventures predicted in 2017 that AI will be greater than all of humanity's previous technological revolutions combined, including electricity and the Internet, adding that AI is far more capable than humans.
“This is supernatural stuff, and we believe this will happen in every industry, potentially replacing 50% of human jobs, creating a tremendous amount of wealth for humanity, and eliminating poverty.” Lee told CNBC At the time, he later predicted this would happen in the next ten years.
Fast forward seven years, and we arrived at the Fortune Innovation Forum in Hong Kong last March, When he sat with him luck Editor-in-Chief Alison Shontell.
Although his forecast timeline is only three years away, I asked him if it still stands, to which he replied: “It's actually incredibly accurate. People criticized me for being too aggressive in 2017, 2018 and 2019, and I was a bit nervous at the time. But when the new generation of AI came out, I think everyone jumped on the bandwagon and thought this was the right pace.
Lee added that AI is likely to eliminate white-collar jobs faster than blue-collar jobs, calling it a very big problem that some countries are beginning to realize the need to address.
When asked what parents should tell their children about their future careers, he said the first thing people should do is “stop this nonsense about kids using ChatGPT to cheat.”
A chatbot, which can produce natural language answers to queries on a range of topics, is another tool, just like Microsoft Word or Abode Photoshop, he said.
Lee continued that when children grow up, enter the workforce, and are evaluated for their performance, bosses will look at the end result of their work and not whether they use ChatGPT or Google search.
“We need to encourage people to harness AI and use all the tools so they can be the best they can be,” he said. “It's also a great guide to the things they can aspire to and the things that aren't worth pursuing.”
Lee certainly still believes there is something unique about our humanity, saying that humans have souls while machines never will. “We have compassion and empathy. We have emotions and the ability to love. We have the ability to connect with others, build trust and earn trust.”
He explained that in fact, more than any technical or business skill, the most important skill you must possess is the ability to gain the trust of others, which comes from authenticity, teamwork, engagement and having a high emotional quotient.
“Do I think AI can fake that? Yes. Do I think people will accept fake AI, at least for the next 50 years? No, long enough for your kids to survive and figure out what their next step is,” he told me. .
