NYU Stern professor and serial entrepreneur Scott Galloway says “AI is not going to take your job” — but people who know how to use it might.
In an episode of the Masters of Scale podcast, which aired earlier this month, Galloway advised anyone who thinks their job might be at risk of automation to start using AI.
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“I would say try to take 15, 30, 60 minutes a day, even if it’s spending time with your kids to try and time sneaker drops — which I’m doing with my 14-year-old — using AI,” he said. “Just get competent with it.”
Galloway, who sold his media business L2 for $134 million in 2017, initially experimented with the tech by having AI write for him based on prompts. He quickly realized how much AI wrote “like a computer” or in a bland way.
“I’ve used AI for every component of my job, and I find it can’t replace anything,” he said.
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Galloway says he now uses AI more as a “thought partner” than a writer. He consults AI for information, asks it to create a pitch deck, and prompts it to ask him questions like an investor based on the pitch deck. AI doesn’t replace the tasks Galloway has to do; it augments them.
“What I would say is just start using [AI], and your own mind will start figuring out ways you can incorporate it,” Galloway said. “You’re the warrior. This is a weapon, but you’re the warrior.”
Scott Galloway. Photo by Tobias Hase/Picture Alliance via Getty Images
Galloway’s recommendations come as tasks like writing and coding have increasingly become automated. In August, Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman predicted a future where AI does most of the coding for software engineers. In April, Goldman Sachs CIO Marco Argenti encouraged computer science majors in college to study philosophy as well in order to develop the reasoning skills to interact with AI.
As for writing, one expert estimates that 90% of all online content will be AI-generated by the end of next year.
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