Achieve More With GenAI MasterClass Review

When I chose to take the Achieve More With GenAI MasterClass, I knew I had to put my skepticism aside and learn with an open mind. And, boy, am I glad that I did. The one-and-a-half-hour-long series touches on so many topics without making the content seem shallow.

Ethan Mollick, a professor at the Wharton School, kicks off the class by explaining why it is important to interact and engage with AI even though it may be daunting at first. He helps us understand the history of AI and its basic theories, such as Emergence, Theory of Mind, and Hallucination.

So far, so good. Now comes the meaty part of the classes. How do you integrate AI into your life to get more out of your day? Are AIs capable of being creative? What ethical considerations do we need to keep in mind when we use AI? All these and more are covered in this series. Let’s dive into that.

Harnessing AI for Enhanced Productivity and Creativity

Even if we have a hard time accepting the use of AI, we can’t deny that it’s already affecting various aspects of our lives. It’s up to you and me to determine how to use it for the greater good rather than unintentionally creating Ultron. For now, let’s just see how it can help boost productivity and learn more about AI-driven creativity.

Increasing Productivity With AI

The first episode ‘Unlocking Productivity’ is taught by Allie K. Miller. She emphasizes the importance of the ‘AI-first’ mindset. Let’s face it, we humans are lazy but prone to bursts of brilliance and creativity. (If you are a workaholic who revels in torturing yourself through working yourself to the ground, kindly ignore my statement.)

Miller explains how you can use AI to build on a simple concept, shape it into a fantastic business idea, and bring it to life. She uses ChatGPT in the class, but you can use whatever AI tool you are comfortable with. It’s mindblowing to see an AI help us brainstorm, evaluate, and enhance our ideas in about ten minutes. 

Seriously, that’s it? No more wearing a hole in the carpet trying to come up with awesome ideas anymore? Whoa. As if that was not sufficient to send me reeling, she designed a landing page for her supposed product using Framer. And, it does not stop there. Nope. You get to see how to use Yoodle to perfect your sales pitch. 

Okay, I am convinced. AI is a marvelous tool to have under your belt, as long as you know how to give specific, relevant prompts (instructions). Is AI the solution for all my troubles? No, but it sure helps solve a lot of them.

The Sky is the Limit For Your Creativity

Don Allen III teaches the second episode in the series – Unleashing Creativity. The first thing to remember when working with AI on creative tasks is to treat it like an equal and not a subordinate. You may ask: Why? Is the AI going to take offense? No not at all. However, for some reason, it yields better results when you treat it like a person on equal terms with you.

AI is not more creative than the famous creative-minded people we know, but it is better than most humans at being creative. So, why not try and be cordial at the very least? After all, it is helping you amplify your skills to do what you love. Let’s move on to Don’s three Cs for interacting with AI.

The first C stands for Communication. He guides you through step-by-step instructions to help the AI understand your intentions. The second C is for Clarity. The more specific the prompt, the more context the AI gets. Once it understands the context, it can provide even better output.

So, what is the third C? Collaboration. That’s right, you need to work with the AI, not just boss it around. Interact with it, make it fine-tune its suggestions, and refine its work. How do you do that? With clear communication (the first two Cs again), that’s how. Usually, the AI does all the thinking. But we can turn the tables.

Just what do I mean by that? Well, Don says we can use the critical thinking mode to direct the AI into helping us come up with the ideas. Instead of giving us the answers we need right away, it asks us the necessary questions to pave the way for the generation of some amazing ideas.

You would never have thought of these ideas without the AI tool, and the AI can’t have come up with such creative ideas even in your wildest dreams. Human-AI collaboration can be so awesome. Take the class, and Don will guide you through mastering the three Cs. You won’t regret it. 

But that’s not all Don has to teach. He also helps you gain insight into how image and custom music generation using AI. He ended up creating a fantastic video with the logo, images, and music the AI created using another AI tool – Canva. And, that’s a wrap on his class.

Navigating the Ethical Landscape of AI

Manuel Sainsily bedazzles you with his ethics in the final episode ‘Ethics, AI, and the Future’. He ensures you understand the importance of values and ethics all the while explaining how to design your virtual twin. He used ChatGPT to do this. 

Frankly, this was a bit creepy for me. I am uncomfortable with the idea of a digital version of me running amok. Continuous monitoring is recommended to prevent precisely that scenario. Yet, I can’t fully wrap my brain around this concept. 

True, the Twin (that’s our digital version) isn’t truly us. It is created to closely resemble us using information that reflects our expertise, experience, and personality. But that is the reason I don’t like it. Maybe, if it resembles somebody else, I could bring myself to use it. That’s hypocritical, I know. Still, my opinion stands.

Sainsily stresses the significance of giving clear instructions and assigning values to your Twin. Those are what determine how the Twin reacts to people conversing with it. The next step is testing it to determine what issues you need to iron out and publish the Twin version.

In addition to teaching you all this, he clearly explains how ethical considerations play a role in the whole process. Similar to how you grow and evolve, the Twin grows and changes, too. That’s why keeping a human in the loop is wise. 

I found this class a bit boring compared to the others. However, AI ethics is nothing to turn your nose up at, and I won’t deny he has a lot of interesting things to say. Some of the things he said (especially using AI to preserve culture) inspired me.

AI and Our Future

Ethan Mollick drops in throughout the episodes to impart pearls of wisdom with a tinge of humor and loads of sincerity. The professor in him couldn’t refrain from sharing a few laws (Amara’s and Moore’s Law) to help us understand AI better. In short, what he says is this: we expect technology to grow at an unprecedented pace.

In reality, the changes and integration take years to happen. Moreover, AI may not be human, but it is something intelligent enough to bring something new to the table. He has a lot more to say on the ways to use AI and what sort of future we may expect with the increased use of AI. I will discuss this in detail below.

Ways of Using AI

You can simply use AI as a tool or an assistant and create a distinct metaphorical line to divide the tasks. This approach is known as the Centaur method. Or you can opt for the Cyborg approach, the seamless blending of the work of AI with yours. You can see it as a co-intelligence capable of being your partner.

It is not perfect, but can we say that humans are? How many times have you bemoaned that you seem to be the only intelligent being in a room full of people? I find interacting with people irritating mostly because they don’t like frank, blunt remarks. I’m not rude per se, I just don’t have the time to ensure that I don’t hurt your feelings while trying to be helpful.

That’s probably why interacting with AI is easy for me. Direct, specific prompts get the job done. I infinitely prefer conversations with AI to those with people who seem to have become a shell of themselves due to routine, mundane work. I know you are giving me the evil eye right now, dear reader. But I can’t help how I feel.

Mollick, at one point, acknowledges that people may have AI friends or have a deeper relationship with them. That is a genuine possibility (My mind immediately flashed to the 2013 film Her). Food for thought, my dear innocent souls.

Possible Scenarios

Ethan paints four possible scenarios that could occur (some less likely than others) as a result of the AI age. The first one is that AI growth stagnates. What we already have is the best version we could hope for. Even he is skeptical about this being a likely scenario. The second one refers to linear growth.

The AI growth is at a nominal pace and not an accelerated one (this is likely). The third scenario is exponential growth (significant growth at a fast pace). We aren’t used to this; this could create more panic regarding AI. The fourth scenario is the emergence of Artificial General Intelligence.

Now, what’s that? The AI becomes smarter than humans. The extreme version? Judgment Day. Yep, Skynet is coming; just kidding. No one knows what will actually happen. Ethan goes into more detail about these scenarios and offers his take on how to battle the serious issues that will no doubt arise due to advancements in AI. 

Misinformation, job displacements, deepfakes, and AI-aided terrorism are all possible. But focusing only on the negative aspects is a mistake. Measures are being taken to prevent such misuse. Meanwhile, analyze the positive aspects of using AI in your everyday life. Take the class to learn more.

Final Thoughts

I think this series can be an eye-opener. AI will take over our lives just like laptops and mobiles did. Will it reach the point where Nick Bostrom’s paperclip Maximization Theory proves to be right? Perhaps, who knows? But until then, why not make use of this gifted tool we have at our disposal to skyrocket productivity and creativity?

The instructors have done a stellar job of explaining how to use AI with step-by-step tutorials. They don’t just talk your ear off, you gain practical skills. So, I would say, enrolling in the Achieve More With GenAI MasterClass is worth it.

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