How AI Will Shape the Future — Matt Britton on Focus Atlanta | Generation AI

Hello and welcome back to FOCUS Atlanta Again. I am your host, Kesha Lancelin. Thanks so much for tuning in with us this Sunday afternoon. In our next segment, we're going to talk a little bit about AI. I know, I know if you're of a certain age, it's kind of freaking you out, right? There's all this chatter about it and what we should know, what we should be aware of. Well, I'm here with Matt Britton and he's going to give us some insight.

Hi, how are you? Great to see you.

So good to meet you. Thanks for coming on the show.

Absolutely.

Now, I feel like as we get older, these things pop up and we're not quite sure how to navigate it. What should we know about AI?

Well, first and foremost, I think people are underestimating AI's impact. A lot of people are mistakenly looking at AI like just another technology. But it really is a completely new realm of, of how humans are gonna be able to interact and produce in the workforce and also on a personal level. And it should really be a mandate for anyone, no matter if you're 8 years old or 80 years old, to really fully understand AI's capabilities today because it's gonna change our world in ways that most people cannot yet imagine.

But I guess that we feel like it just seems so huge. It's almost overwhelming the amount of things that it can do and ways that it can impact our lives. Like, is there, are there baby steps?

Absolutely. I think what I always tell people when they ask me that question, and it's a great one, is first start by identifying a problem or challenge, either in your life, personally or in your profession, that you really want to solve and write that down. And then start to think about what is the data that you can get your hands around, documents, files, et cetera, that might be able to inform AI in terms of helping you solve that problem. So, for example, if it's creating a budget, you're going to want to upload a, or get together all your expenses that you've had in the last year. If it's solving a health problem, you're going to want to gather all your medical reports and X ray and MRI information, for example, and then you really want to think about what a solution looks like. And then go to ChatGPT and tell ChatGPT, this is the problem I want to solve. What steps do I want to take? Don't tell me the second step before I tell you I've solved the first. And one step at a time or baby steps. As you put it, you'll find that it's not as hard and challenging as you think. And by the time that project is done, you're going to be a lot further along towards solving that challenge than you were when you started.

And the other thing, I think for the older generation, for those of us who have not been exposed to this as much as, you know, maybe some other generations, Safety. We're a little freaked out about safety. Like, what does this, what information are we putting out there into the universe? Are we going to be okay? Are we going to be secure?

Well, I think with every new technology comes fear. And people often fear what they don't understand. And definitely people have, you know, a good right to be fearful about AI, especially when it comes to privacy and data security, as you're alluding to. If you think about it, when E commerce first became a thing and people were purchasing online, everyone was scared about their credit card numbers being stolen. And then when Facebook and those other social media networks became commonplace, people became fearful about sharing where they were going on vacation or pictures with their family. Yet if you talk to older consumers, they're spending a ton of time on platforms like Facebook today. So I think over time, people get used to it and get conditioned to this new way of interacting with technology. So I think it's not surprising that those fears exist. But I think over time, people will become more comfortable and frankly, they don't have a choice because consumers who aren't embracing this are really going to find themselves on the outside looking in with all the changes that are occurring in society.

Well, then I got to get you to close out with information about the book. Where can we find the book and what type of information are we going to gain?

Absolutely. So I have a book coming out this May called Generation AI and it really details a lot of the things that we've spoken about briefly today. AI's impact on business, on culture and society. You can purchase the book anywhere that books are sold on places like Amazon and Barnes and Noble, as well as go to GenerationAI bot, which is the book's website.

Fantastic. Thanks so much for coming on the show and kind of putting our minds at ease again. I think that sometimes different generations have a handle on different things and we don't always know how to jump in, when we should jump in, if we should jump in. And we need this type of guidance. So it was a pleasure to meet you.

Thanks for having me.

Absolutely. All right, guys. We don't have to be as afraid as I know that you are or maybe as afraid as I am, we can learn a little bit more, get the book, figure out where you fit in. You know, to his point, it is the wave of the future. If we don't want to get left behind, we've got to figure out how to work it. Stay tuned to More Focus Atlanta. We'll be right back.