It was an unmistakable political advertisement. As the Chairman of the Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Boston Gold, I had just completed a program where we represented the Institute in MIT, in a program organized by the German government. All the leadership decided to have dinner together in Waltham in Cheesecake Factory.

As I sat down, I saw a political ad: a factory man explained how Mitt Romney (competing against Obama for US presidency) had asked them to build a stage, and how Romney later came, and fired all of them while standing on that stage. That was my first time of watching the “Stage”, the ad that destroyed Romney’s any chance of winning the presidency. How do you ask people to build a stage so that you can be visible as you fire them? The message was politically lethal. (The advert below)

That takes me to the news that Goldman Sachs software developers are now using ChatGPT to get their codes going: “Reports reveal that software developers at leading global investment banking, securities, and investment management firm, Goldman Sachs, are internally using generative AI tools to assist in writing and testing codes.”  

Across all domains of business, as AI systems evolve, many will train machines which will prepare stages to displace them. The key is having awareness of what to do to stop being a victim. 

Learn something beyond coding because basic coding will go like Isaac Pitman shorthand in 3 years.

“Developers are already using some of the assisted coding technology to write codes. It is currently in a proof of concept stage and not yet ready for production. It is still very early, you wouldn’t put immediately all your most important workloads there, but the imperative is to really try to understand the potential”.

“In some cases, developers have been able to write as much as 40% of their code automatically using generative AI. They are using the software to both test code and generate new ones. If you actually have a GPT-like technology that tests the code, or you generate the tests for the GPT code, you are creating this dualism where you test the machine and you get the machine to test your work”.

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Comment 1: I read this then put it away. I returned to it and read it again. I reread it thrice and came to the conclusion that sometimes we don’t know if we really wanted something until we actually got it: Once Pandora opened the box what escaped could not be put back in.

As the story of Pandora’s box goes the only thing that remained in the box was hope. While the invention of AI is certainly amazing what will be created by its use will tower above what exists today. With all good things comes evil so maybe we need Pandora to open that box once more to release the trapped hope so that more good will come of AI than bad.

Let’s learn to us it for good and create jobs and opportunities to enrich life for many, instead of the opposite.

My Response: “Let’s learn to us it for good and create jobs and opportunities to enrich life for many, instead of the opposite.” – it will of course. The only challenge is that it will not carry many people along!

Comment 2: Interesting piece! People skills and building managerial competencies will always be needed. So building that will be an added advantage. In the words of Rockefeller “The ability to deal with people is as purchasable a commodity as sugar or coffee. And I will pay more for that ability than for any other under the sun.”

Comment 3: Industrial revolution = Farms to Factories

Technological revolution = Offices to Farms

We are about to go full circle, then we rinse and repeat again.

The process is basically the same, different terminologies for each dispensation.

Which shoe do you wear? If that shoe becomes our career, the implication becomes huge. Would you be open to try a bigger shoe, or even a different design? The message today is that most times we underestimate how ready to wear that “bigger shoe”.

Sometimes, take risks and find ways to FALL FORWARD. Applying for only jobs which you are 100% ready means you are not advancing your career. Indeed, the job which you are 100% ready for is essentially at parity with your current role.  You just changed a title but if you check, not much progress.  In the Igbo Nation, the elders will say “a bird that flew from the ground only to perch on an ant hill is still very much on the ground.” Indeed, it goes beyond titles to more responsibilities and impacts. And we’re ready for those higher calls.

To advance, and move to the next level, you must aim HIGHER – and be open to try a new bigger shoe.  We win our future through our mindsets. You are ready – and ready for that promotion. You have been static for long: creatively make it evident that you’re ready.

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Comment 1: Prof., please translate this proverb in Igbo. I’m trying to do so but it’s not making sense.

My Response:  “nnunu nke si n’ala fepu ma noro n’elu ikwubo ka nokwa n’ala”  [ (Ovim version)

But in Igbo Izugbe (general Igbo), anti-hill is “ugwu ndanda”. But in Ovim, we call it “ikwubo”. So, I am using the Ovim version here since I am not writing WAEC. But if I were in a WAEC exam, I would have used “ugwu ndanda” to get the A1 even though I think their translation is not advanced.

In Igbo, you do not just translate words, you translate culture. For example, “the man is a fox”, in translation would be “nwoke ahu bu mbe” (i.e. tortoise) since fox is alien in Igbo. What fox is to the English people is what tortoise is to Igbos, culturally. So, when you translate, you move words and also consider culture.

Thanks to my Igbo Teachers in Secondary Technical School Ovim: Baba Iyke and Madam Odumuko.

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