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During my Report to the Board, I shared my thoughts on the future of our industry and how we can position ourselves to compete – and win – in a marketplace that is more and more driven by technology. Before my remarks, I directed attendees to two handouts that had been placed on their chairs. One was an article from Axios on how parents are leveraging ChatGPT to better communicate with their kids. This article – which happened as a result of a recent media dinner we held last month – featured Keith Foxx, one of our member firm executives, sharing how he uses AI to connect with his teenage daughter. The takeaway was that while she loved what he sent her, she also knew it was not he who composed it. The Axios piece is a fascinating peek into how AI is getting smarter every day, but it’s also a reminder that technology is not a substitute for humanity.
To test that theory, the second handout was a column on the essentiality of engineering, as written by ChatGPT. As I told attendees, the result came within five seconds of my directing the prompt, which was nothing more than, “Give me one page on the essentiality of engineering in my voice.” What I got back was…shockingly well-done. It was concise, the grammar and syntax were flawless, the argument was strong. But…while the ChatGPT piece hit it out of the park on the broad strokes, the fine lines were absent. There was nothing about who WE are as an organization. Nothing about HOW our members serve our communities. It was exactly what you’d expect from a machine: a macro answer to what should be a micro question. Engineering is essential. But engineers are crucial.
And that was the very point I made in my remarks: that technology is not going to replace the human element. But the flipside of that is that we also can’t ignore its growing influence and impact. Technology is not something to fear. It’s something to be embraced, and to be leveraged. The world has changed. As I told the Board: we risk nothing by being prepared for that change. We risk everything if we aren’t.
Have a great week,
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