Perspective. (With implications for most businesses.)

https://warontherocks.com/2024/10/ai-and-intelligence-analysis-panacea-or-peril/

AI and Intelligence Analysis: Panacea or Peril?

In today’s chaotic world, professional intelligence analysts must contend with nearly endless data streams, which risk overwhelming them while also exacerbating the impact of cognitive biases. Is AI the answer, or do the flaws that currently afflict AI create yet more risks?

In fact, AI is neither a panacea nor a peril. Like other emerging technologies, AI is not an instant “out of the box” solution but rather a capability that continues to evolve. Today, AI can augment human capabilities and enhance the analysis process by tackling specific challenges. However, AI is not without issues. This means its value lies in serving as a complementary capability to the expertise and judgment of human intelligence analysts.

Before the wholesale adoption of AI in support of intelligence analysis, it is essential to understand the specific problems facing analysts: coping with large volumes of data; the acquisition of data from non-traditional sources; and, perhaps most vexing of all, the impacts of cognitive biases that impact the objectivity of intelligence assessments. AI can play a valuable role in alleviating these challenges, but only if humans are kept in the loop.

Perspective.

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/generative-ai-the-american-worker-and-the-future-of-work/

Generative AI, the American worker, and the future of work

The launch of ChatGPT-3.5 at the end of 2022 captured the world’s attention and illustrated the uncanny ability of generative artificial intelligence (AI) to produce a range of seemingly human-generated content, including text, video, audio, images, and code. The release, and the many eye-catching breakthroughs that quickly followed, have raised questions about what these fast-moving generative AI technologies might mean for work, workers, and livelihoods—now and in the future, as new models are released that are potentially much more powerful. Many U.S. workers are worried: According to a Pew Research Center poll, most Americans believe that generative AI will have a major impact on jobs—mainly negative—in the next two decades. 

Despite these widely shared concerns, however, there is little consensus on the nature and scale of generative AI’s potential impacts and how—or even whether—to respond. Fundamental questions remain unanswered: How do we ensure workers can proactively shape generative AI’s design and deployment? What will it take to make sure workers benefit meaningfully from its gains? And what guardrails are needed for workers to avoid harms as much as possible? 

These animating questions are the heart of this report and a new multiyear effort we have launched at Brookings with a wide range of external collaborators