The world is changing exponentially with the rapid emergence and adoption of generative AI and its advanced tools. As you might have noticed, AI-powered search engines like OpenAI’s ChatGPT Search are redefining the search landscape, presenting bite-size, often well-curated, and to-the-point responses to queries.
Despite being deemed an illegal monopoly in search, a former Google engineer says the company may have bigger fish to fry with OpenAI’s “temporary prototype” search tool. Search isn’t the only area majorly impacted by the AI bubble, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently claimed that AI might be slowly reducing the importance of raw intelligence.
While appearing in a recent episode of the ReThinking podcast, Altman told organizational psychologist Adam Grant (via CNBC):
“There will be a kind of ability we still really value, but it will not be raw, intellectual horsepower to the same degree. Figuring out what questions to ask will be more important than figuring out the answer.”
Grant seemingly shared Altman’s sentiments, reiterating the importance of knowing how to ask questions that seek to establish a pattern and establish more context on a topic:
“I think it’s much more valuable to be a connector of dots … If you can synthesize and recognize patterns, you have an edge.”
Interestingly, the OpenAI executive acknowledges the importance of learning how to ask important questions that provoke a thought process that could potentially help solve complex issues. Last year, a report revealed that the top complaint in Microsoft’s AI division — Copilot doesn’t work as well as ChatGPT.
I have certainly gotten the greatest professional joy from having to really creatively reason through a problem and figure out an answer that no one’s figured out before. What I expect to happen in reality is, there’s going to be a new way we work on the hard problems.
OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman
Microsoft quickly refuted the claim, citing a lack of proper prompt engineering skills. A Microsoft employee indicated that the quality of Copilot’s response depends on how you present your prompt or query. Microsoft has since furnished Copilot users with a library of resourceful videos to help users enhance their prompt engineering skills.
In September 2024, Microsoft launched Copilot Academy to help equip businesses with the best practices when interacting and leveraging the tool’s capabilities. That said, prompt engineering is increasingly becoming a big deal and an essential skill as more people hop onto the AI bandwagon and become more dependent on these tools.
