The president of Openai, Bret Taylor, used Microsoft Excel to explain why he is “optimistic” according to which people will learn to work with AI, in the midst of an anxiety of anxiety among the workers of knowledge who fear that technology will replace them.
Taylor, who also heads the AI startup, Sierra and previously occupied roles in Salesforce, Facebook and X, said that “five years” are very disruptive and tumultuous for “certain jobs”.
But he said that Microsoft Excel, who made his debut in 1985, has automated many tasks that the accountants had done before manually, without making someone who uses it “less accounting”.
“Simply because you did not make this mathematical equation, it does not make the results less precious for your customers,” he said in an episode of the Podcast of the Knowledge project which broadcast on Wednesday.
He added that AI will make software engineering “completely different in two years”.
“If you define your role as a software engineer that the speed with which you type in your IDE, the next few years could leave you behind,” he said, referring to an integrated development environment-an application for software development.
Instead of code faster, Taylor said that engineers should focus on what to build and how to guide these systems. “Your judgment as a software engineer will continue to be incredibly important,” he added.
Taylor has added that, if your work depends on your mastery of obsolete tools, you are more likely to be replaced, adding: “Some people who define their work by their ability to use the latest generation tools will really be, really effectively disturbed.”
Taylor said workers should think about how they can add value and adopt “an opening of mind on reskilling and reinvention of their work through the objective of this new dramatically different technology”.
“If you take the longer view and in the quick advance of 25 or 50 years, I am incredibly optimistic,” added Taylor.