The rise of overnight AI experts: opportunities & pitfalls

Expertise in excess: the double-edged sword of rapid AI proliferation

“The con man’s most important asset is his victim’s belief that he is a good man.” — George C. Scott

There’s a trend I’ve become acutely aware of, reminiscent of a time before the digital renaissance turned every second person into a proclaimed UX guru. Not long after, as societal tides turned, a wave of overnight DEI experts flooded our feeds, riding the crest of the Black Lives Matter movement. And now, we’re witnessing the dawn of a new era where, seemingly, everyone is an AI savant. But let’s not be fooled by this masquerade of instant mastery. The landscape is becoming crowded with ‘snake oil AI salespeople,’ characters as colorful as they are cunning, who, after a brief romance with AI buzzwords, position themselves as architects of the future. Their pitch is as glossy as a freshly printed brochure, promising revolutionary solutions while glossing over the gritty and nuanced complexities of AI technology.

These modern-day alchemists, with their suits as sharp as their sales pitches, transform rudimentary knowledge into golden opportunities, selling their wares in the bustling market of innovation. They blend a sprinkle of machine learning, a dash of neural networks, and a generous helping of technical jargon, concocting a compelling yet questionable brew of expertise.

Just as the elixirs of old promised miraculous cures, these modern-day charlatans offer quick fixes and one-size-fits-all solutions in AI, leading to a cluttered marketplace where genuine expertise is hard to discern from the smoke and mirrors of opportunism.

In the space of AI application, myriad considerations unfolds, touching on areas like policy, governance, morality, privacy, bias, equity, design, and risk, among others. Let me briefly unpack what I mean in this quick list and the AI considerations, in quick form.

Crafting policy for AI involves a nuanced approach that must…