First of a series

As people examine artificial intelligence, and what it might do for them, it might be useful to consider the story of two area authors who recently published a book about it.

Ernesto Verdugo and Frank Mulcahy, both public speakers, published The AI Whisper’s Method, a reference guide presented as a story to encourage understanding of how best to use artificial intelligence.

Verdugo said he and Mulcahy used artificial intelligence as a tool to help write the book, which they produced in about 15 days. They spoke about artificial intelligence at a recent meeting of the Fulshear Katy Area Chamber of Commerce.

“That’s why the important thing about artificial intelligence is that it enhances the capabilities of any human being,” Verdugo said. “That doesn’t mean that I asked the artificial intelligence to write the book for me. What I did is I trained the artificial intelligence to be my literary companion.”

The technology, new and constantly changing, can make some people uneasy. That the technology might replace a worker can be unsettling, but Verdugo said the best way to think about it is that a worker would not be replaced by artificial intelligence. Instead, the worker would be replaced by someone who uses artificial intelligence better than they do.

Such concerns are not new. Mulcahy said people are always afraid of change.

“They were afraid of change when we had the horse and buggy, but then Henry Ford came out with the automobile—and in the matter of just a few years dominated,” Mulcahy said. “The same thing with John Deere with the tractor. It replaced the oxen and the mule. Same thing when the first calculator first came out. Teachers said you can’t use the calculator, it’s cheating. Imagine not using a calculator today.”

Verdugo said his son, who is a junior in high school, uses artificial intelligence in his schoolwork.

“One of the things that I find that teachers who do not embrace artificial intelligence are dangerous because, as my son told me, he said, ‘Next year I’m just about to go to university and the pace of artificial intelligence is moving,’” Verdugo said. “Very likely, four years from now the jobs that exist today are not going to exist four years from now. So, if you’re a teacher and you’re saying well, you cannot use this, you’re actually really hurting the students. So, for me, that’s a very, very difficult subject to talk about.”

Mulcahy said computers don’t have what he called “the personal aspect.” Therefore, they must be human-directed so they can work at their best. Specific instructions from the user—the more specific, the better—are necessary.

Verdugo said he and Mulcahy had to have ChatGPT—the artificial intelligence tool they used—learn about the hero’s journey, a storytelling device used in written works. In this way, they could use artificial intelligence to tell the “hero’s” story, in which he and the reader learn about artificial intelligence and how to use it.

“One of the things that people have been very uncomfortable with about artificial intelligence is the fact that you can just press the magic button and then suddenly everything is written there,” Verdugo said. But there’s more to it than that. Verdugo said people are learning to use artificial intelligence to get the computers to understand how a task must be performed.

Mulcahy said when one embraces the technology, the creative juices start flowing.

“The only people that have fear is if they don’t adapt,” Mulcahy said. “Their competitors will and that’s going to give them, in a very short window, an incredible advantage in the marketplace. So that’s why people have to embrace it because it’s inevitable. It’s part of life.”