The AI hype needs HR: Techies can’t do it alone
Why HR expertise is crucial in the age of artificial intelligence.
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Happy Monday,
Last Friday, my daughter quit second grade, so instead of publishing the newsletter, I stood and watched forty kids singing summer songs and hugged their teachers goodbye for the summer.
So here we are on a Monday.
Let’s get to it.
I thought I was late.
Late to the "ChatGPT hype."
I posted my first article about ChatGPT in mid-January 2023, and ChatGPT had already been out for more than a month. (In hindsight—lol.)
One reason for my delay was my fear that I knew too little about the underlying technology powering ChatGPT and AI as a whole.
Having worked with tech companies my entire career, alongside some of the most brilliant minds in AI (have you ever tried Discover Weekly, for example?), I thought, who am I to talk about this AI thing?
Hence, I re-watched every YouTube video about AI I had ever seen, read the entire "Attention is all you need" paper (the work that powers much of Generative AI), and retook parts of the Elements of AI course. Then, with a bit of hesitation, I posted.
Ever since, one question has lingered: Does one really need to understand all technical aspects of Generative AI to work with it?
The more I learn and see, the more I argue that you don’t need to know all the technical details; what you need is a basic understanding of how the technology works—and that’s good enough. Don’t get me wrong—I think it’s important to understand the basics of the technology, but by making it more complex than necessary, we create a greater hurdle for people to start utilizing these tools.
How does one get that basic knowledge? Spending 90 minutes on this video, for example. I’ve talked about this video in the past, but it’s still excellent.
My point is that some of the world’s most innovative engineering minds are working on the technical aspects of generative AI and all parts of it.
The technology won’t be the problem.
As most AI gurus point out, "The AI models you use today are the worst ones you’ll ever use." No, the problems we face are connected to how these tools will impact us humans.
By putting up technology moats and making Generative AI more complicated than it is, we exclude people who need to bring their perspectives on the impact it will have on us. That’s why I’m so keen on trying to remove the hurdles and make Generative AI less intimidating for us in HR.
We might not know all the intrinsic details of the technology, and that's fine. But we know the behavioral science part of the equation, and that is a skill deeply needed.
So don’t let the technical realities of AI scare you from getting started—we are not that technical, nor should we be.
Instead, we bring crucial skills to the table, such as understanding how AI will impact our culture, our organizations, and, perhaps most importantly, our people.
We got this.