Alumnus Maury Giles, a top executive with more than 25 years of experience designing market research, spent about an hour during homecoming week in November talking to students at New Mexico State University about the future of artificial intelligence.
“Using generative AI requires you to be able to communicate clearly in your language,” said Giles, who earned his degree in journalism and communication studies. “It’s not just in English, there are AIs in multiple languages, but my point is that understanding language and being able to communicate matters because when you use generative AI tools, you don't just search the way you search Google.”
Giles, a previous NMSU distinguished alum in 2008, has worked with global companies and small boutique firms. He is currently the senior vice president of Growth at Material Plus IO, a company with 1,500 employees that helps companies, brands and organizations use data inside strategy design.
To use artificial intelligence effectively in the future, Giles emphasized students should hone their command of communication skills because this will be the coding language of generative AI.
Giles explained generative AI is about association of words and meanings – making connections. He encouraged students to engage with AI tools now to keep up with the fast-evolving AI landscape. Giles shared the 30 most important AI tools listed by the Marketing AI Institute.
“We are very quickly getting to Tom Cruise “Minority Report” type stuff,” he said. “Why do these things matter? Eventually you tie it all together, taking the physical components and the structural elements of mechanical engineering that can move and interact, mimicking the way a human would, and you train it to your own hyper-personalization.”
He described the hyper-personalized generative AI agent as a sort of digital clone.
“Every time we use AI to help craft and distribute something on our behalf, we're incrementally constructing our digital doppelganger,” Giles said. ““Think about your job, say you don’t like dealing with time sheets. Maybe there are other administrative things you don’t like to do. An AI agent would be a digital version of you that takes care of things for you. A lot of experts are predicting your AI agent will even look like you, it’ll sound like you because it’ll interact verbally as well as in writing. But you will set the parameters and have all the security pieces around it. This is already happening right now.”
The standard software development model starts with companies who design it, test it, package it and sell it. But since 2022, the evolution of generative AI is playing out in real time. Open AI is allowing the pursuit of this concept of artificial general intelligence with no limits, anyone can use it and test it.
While it may seem scary that AI is capable of out outperforming the average human on most cognitive tasks, Giles argued it’s vital for everyone to embrace artificial intelligence and become proficient in using its capabilities.
“What does it mean then for you personally? I’ll tell you from my own perspective of what I see,” Giles said. “I believe what matters for you individually is that you expose yourself to AI if you haven't already. I am using it myself. It may seem mind boggling, but you don’t have to use all of these, just pick a couple and then start using them now. I can guarantee that in your future jobs, you will be using these or some version of them. And by the time you get further into your career, generative AI is going to be a central part of what you're doing.”
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CUTLINE: Headshot of NMSU Alumnus Maury Giles (Courtesy Photo)
CUTLINE: NMSU Alumnus discussing the benefits of Artificial Intelligence integration during Homecoming week 2024. (NMSU Photo by Scott Hause)