The Ultimate ‘Hustle Bro’ Guide To AI
All for the low, low cost of almost free.
The first time I learned about ChatGPT was through a youtuber who used AI to build a Magic The Gathering Arena standard deck and run it against actual humans. Ironically in the video, he won every match, but not through what the AI outlined.
The idea of the deck was a combo deck and according to the AI, the combo involved a creature to provide more mana so you could cast the combo. Oddly in the AI’s infinite wisdom, there was only one such card in the entire deck (in standard, you’re allowed up to 4 copies of the same card).
That was earlier this year and since then, this new form of AI has done a lot that it’s hard to keep up with exactly what it is capable of doing. With more features rolling out every day, there was never a day I went to Twitter and immediately see a post from some tech bro about ChatGPT and what it’s able to do.
All of these things remind me so much of automation and the hesteria that came from it.
There is no denying that AI — like with automation — is very helpful, but the biggest problem and criticism I have with this is the fact it’s overhyped and its existence and ability has given permission for smooth brained rich CEOs to believe AI can do things better than people.
As Adam Conover points out on his AI video, AI is already here, it’s helpful, but the new iteration called “Generative AI” is junk that no one actually needs but everyone is obsessing over and thinks it’s going to take over the world, replace jobs, and make everyone’s lives better.
Naturally, the hype around this new iteration of AI has won people over and so hustle bros from all over have created video after video talking about AI and how great it is. It only makes sense that many offer courses as well and sell these courses hard and for hundreds of dollars.
They tell you their program is unique and the best one you’ll ever purchase. You’ll be getting ahead of the curve of so many other people by taking their courses.
But I highly doubt that.
While the extent of my interaction is limited, I do have documented how hustle bros generally work in recent months.
I’ve spoken about how their lives are utterly false and misleading.
Or how some of their advice really doesn’t add up or make practical sense.
But their charm and charisma is able to keep us in that loop of “always hustling”.
All in all, chances are high that hustle bros courses on AI are about as generic and bland as plain oatmeal. I wouldn’t even be surprised if they used AI to teach people about AI.
In the end, you really don’t need to be buying multiple courses or really any course on AI. Instead, it’s better for you to do your own research and to experiment with AI itself.
And through this article, you should get a better understanding of what AI is and isn’t and how to leverage it as it continues to develop.
AI Is Brimming With Possibilities And Problems
As I mentioned before, AI is nothing all that new to us and has been around for quite some time. The only reason ChatGPT and other public-use AI tools feel so new is because technology over time tends to be forgotten the more its integrated into our lives.
Do you use predictive text on your phone? Those prompts are generated through AI. How about your camera or other facial recognition programs? Those are AI too.
If you have a smart TV, chances are AI dishes up other shows that you might be interested in based on your viewing history.
And no doubt ads you see online are related to that too on some level.
AI has even been used in recruiting jobs.
And it’s here in particular where we see a lot of possibilities but also a great deal of problems.
You see, the biggest sell that AI has to offer is a higher level of productivity. AI can put together this article within minutes while doing it manually will take a few hours, maybe even more.
Similar to automation, it removes a lot of steps and compresses them into tasks that can be done in a blink of an eye or a little bit of waiting. With that in mind, it’s fair to say that AI isn’t going to replace an entire industry, but rather compliment industries for those who use the tool.
But along with that comes a lot of problems that AI has baked into its systems. There are three very notable ones:
- First is the fact AI isn’t able to convey emotions and lacks other abilities that humans innately have. Like our ability to take an idea or concept or what we’re seeing and able to perceive an entirely new outcome.
- Second is the black box problem. Thanks to AI’s deep learning, even engineers and data scientists who created these programs aren’t able to tell people how AI reached certain conclusions.
- And lastly is the legal grey area surrounding generative AI. These days, AI is narrow in that it’s able to perform specific tasks very well and it’s incapable of human emotion and thought. As such, AI doesn’t even consider the legal ramifications of certain actions. Like running into kids.
And then you learn that despite these problems people are comfortable enough with issuing emails — through the help of AI — to family members after a mass shooting in a university.
There’s nothing wrong with playing around with a shiny new toy and learning it’s capabilities. However it’s impact on the world can be massive, make certain issues we can see already even worse, and generate more problems that we can’t even anticipate.
These problems probably won’t result in us being overtaken by robots, but it can still be pretty frustrating. For example, with AI skimming resumes it can pick up certain human biases based on previous hiring practices. As a result, you might have a harder time finding a job if every company you send your resume to uses an AI to filter job applications.
At worst, it can land you into legal hot water where a company will outright sue you.
What Is The Best Way To Be Using AI?
While those problems do need to be addressed, another step that can be taken is to look at how we see AI. A lot of those glaring issues I mentioned above probably aren’t addressed by hustle bro AI courses.
They’d rather lean into the hype of it and sell its possibilities rather than tell you you could get sued if you slap an AI-generated image on a t-shirt and tried to sell it. And that’s one of the issues.
A lot of hustle bros miss the point for what AI can truly do and they’re not willing to do a bit of digging to see how it can fit into the bigger picture. It’s why I think if you want to future proof your job, it’s better to learn more about AI and to work with it rather than working without it.
Take this article from Vox’s senior correspondent Dylan Matthews which outlines how Ethan and Lilach Mollick stopped worrying about their jobs and began using AI in their own courses.
The article points out how Microsoft’s Bing AI messed up some key points, but the end result was alright. With some human review, editing, and research it would be hard to tell whether an AI made it or a human did.
And that’s really the point here.
AI is going to change how we work, but it’s not a great replacer of human workers. If businesses don’t understand that, they’re going to be burned in more ways than one.
Even Google’s AI understands that.
The issue is working through the hype and what big tech is pushing down our throats. A lot of it is hype and excitement over new features or what AI can do. But put into practice and it’s not practical, the AI breaks or creates unanticipated outcomes, or it raises some systemic problems.
Letting AI do what it wants without some human involvement is like letting Tay go out and explore Twitter. At the start its talking about puppies and humans are great and it devolves to siding with Hitler and saying that 9/11 was staged.
Oh and that Hitler invented atheism.
It’s generated text and Tay back then certainly didn’t feel anything. But an AI’s actions create ripple effects. We’re seeing how AI is affecting creative industries like music and writing. AI isn’t creating anything truly new but rather mimicking it.
There’s nothing that wrong with drawing inspiration from various sources (as I have with this article), but when it comes to humans, there will at least be some differentiation. A new perspective, a new story, or some new format.
AI skips over that.
Ultimately the best way to be using AI is to be working along side it but to use it as a base template if it’s necessary. One does not simply run a prompt through ChatGPT and send it off immediately after without looking.
Instead, it’s better to engage with the AI, learn more about it and use it to develop more problem-solving skills and critical-thinking skills. This is why AI is being taught to kids right this moment.
How Do We Leverage AI?
The biggest draw that hustle bro courses provide could very well be prompts. They and other tech bros advocating for AI hype up prompts like they’re some kind of secret code that only they have.
“If you knew these prompts you’d be using AI better than most people who use AI” type of stuff.
But I highly doubt that. AI is created by humans and so particular prompts are not beyond human knowledge. It’s more of the fact there is so many you could do people might miss out on some pretty helpful ones.
If that’s the case, then an AI course taught by some hustle bro is not worth the price tag they offer. Especially when you can dig up a whole host of prompts online or just try it yourself since a lot of AI’s are free to use or have free trials.
Wired magazine had an article in March outlining specific prompts that are worthwhile using in ChatGPT. Looking over it, these prompts are nothing wild but certainly helpful in getting more out of it. To summarize, they are:
- Putting data in tabular form (table format). Ideal for recipes, learning days of the week in different languages and other things.
- Changing text to match a style to an author. All writing styles are different and we all have our own unique style. Having an AI program replicate a particular style can have its uses.
- Limit the answers by working in restrictions. Especially helpful in a field you’re familiar with. You can ask ChatGPT to correct itself or make changes.
- Outline the intended audience. When AI knows who this is intended for, it can make adjustments. For advanced audiences, it could use technical language. For the general public, it would be more simplistic and avoid jargon.
- Producing prompts that other AI engines can use (Dall-E and Midjourney for example). It’s good to compare prompts and other outputs from other AI tools.
- Getting ChatGPT to make art through the use of ASCII art (art that’s created through characters and symbols). It again simplifies an otherwise tricky and time consuming task for people.
- Simply copying and pasting text from other sources and summarizing it. While I think it’s important to read fully what others have to say, it can be helpful to get general information first before delving in. Otherwise, this can simplify complex papers or sections you don’t quite understand.
- Offer examples. Another simple way to improve responses to provide reference points. Giving AI raw data before offering a prompt or question can help. For example, listing off your favourite food and then asking AI to offer a new suggestion for a meal.
- Get the AI to be almost human. While ChatGPT is generative text and has no emotion it can still mimic one. We can still use this to get ChatGPT to play out a role. A frustrated parent, an excitable teen, or someone older or dead, we can play around with this and glean useful insights into what AI can do and how we might be able to solve human problems.
- Be specific with it. Don’t just ask ChatGPT to write an fanfiction. List the character’s names. Don’t just ask what are some great places to eat, tell ChatGPT what city you’re in, the places you generally eat at and the people with you.
- Hearing both sides of a story. This one I think is crucial, especially in politics, philosophy, and many other topics. Often we’re exposed to one side and that creates biases and so hearing the other side can be an eye opening experience. ChatGPT has reached a point where it’s able to sit on the fence of an issue and not be ambiguous about it.
The thing about these prompts is that these don’t require you to know specific coding. The prompts to ChatGPT wouldn’t be any different to how you talk to Siri, Alexa, Google Home, or other human beings.
But what’s so important is more about how we leverage what comes out from those prompts. There’s nothing wrong with getting inspiration from ChatGPT, Midjourney, or some other new AI tool. But it is a problem if we just take something at face value and release it to the world or twist it in nefarious ways.
The misuse of AI is bound to happen like with anything. But one thing that we can deal with is how the vast majority of people see this new technology as hustle bros pedal their AI courses and scream from the mountains how great AI is.
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