As Silicon Valley races to lead the AI revolution, Bay Area residents are grappling with what the technology means for their work, the information they see online and their everyday lives.
For many people, access to AI took off in 2022, when ChatGPT launched. Four years later, the technology has become part of the workplace and is increasingly shaping how people create and consume information.
KALW talked to people at Dolores Park about how they’re using AI and what they feel when they encounter it.
Thirty-six-year-old Ibrahima Sory Soumah was coaching basketball on the park’s courts. Soumah says he doesn’t use the technology, but since it’s become more widespread, he questions everything he sees online.
"So, it's like you gotta spend what? An extra five minutes at least, or a few minutes just trying to, you know, make sure you're not feeding to something, fake, you know?" Soumah says.
Nearby, Shereen Eltobgy was taking a walk with her husband, Kent de Groot. The couple, both in their 50s, work as life coaches and use AI in their jobs. Eltobgy describes the technology as "a thought partner and research buddy" that helps her improve her work.
That puts her in line with a growing number of American workers. Gallup reports that half of employed Americans use AI at work at least a few times a year.
De Groot, says he isn’t personally worried about AI but he is concerned about what it could mean for younger workers.
"When I was young I was not competing with a computer, you know, making ad copy or, you know, creating reports or doing all of these things that AI is now generating," he reckons.
Kundhan Dasari, who is in his 20s, is one of those young workers navigating AI in the workplace.
As a healthcare consultant, Dasari uses AI to draft emails and analyze data, essentially treating it like an executive assistant. But he says increased productivity doesn’t necessarily mean less work.
"It's just gonna make us work at a faster pace. I feel like it's not gonna make anyone slow down," Dasari says.
Dasari’s experience points to a larger question about AI and the future of work: If the technology can make people more productive, will it eventually replace some workers?
So far, that hasn’t happened on the scale some predictions suggested. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman also walked back an earlier prediction of an AI-driven job apocalypse this year.
Measuring AI’s impact on the broader economy remains difficult. But for workers and residents in the Bay Area, the technology is already changing how they work, how they consume information and how they think about what they see online.
