By Owen Lebakken with help from the Salmon Staff
On Wednesday, February 12, The Salmon Staff hosted software developer Mr. Nowfal Khadar for an AI lecture and Q&A session.
Mr. Khadar is a talented software engineer who previously worked for Amazon as a robotics specialist. There, he and his team built automated shelving units programmed to retrieve orders. These “robo-shelves” saved time, boosted productivity, and improved Amazon’s overall service. Before this technology, Amazon relied on a mix of workers and robots to find individual packages in warehouses that sometimes stretched for miles.
When Artificial Intelligence became mainstream in the early 2020s, Mr. Khadar left Amazon to work for himself. He now spends his time programming from home, where he has built numerous applications and software.
His visit to SAMS came just days after tech writer Matt Shumer published a viral blog post titled Something Big is Happening, which reached 60 million readers. The blog warned of the immense changes AI will bring in the coming weeks, months, and years. According to that article, artificial intelligence could render half of the world’s workforce obsolete in the near future.
While Mr. Khadar couldn’t guarantee that specific prediction, he did speak about AI’s tremendous potential and limitless power. “Every time you use AI, it gets smarter,” Mr. Khadar explained. “It is smarter today than it was yesterday. It can only get better.”
During his lecture, Mr. Khadar explained that AI will change everyday life much like the cell phone did. Those resistant to change may have little choice but to adapt. In fact, we already use AI on a daily basis. Many businesses, banks, and even schools are rolling out AI-enhanced applications, some of which appear remarkably human.
Will we always be able to tell the difference between AI and reality? “Not always,” Mr. Khadar said, though he suspects humans will eventually demand “guardrails” for the technology.
The technology is already capable of creating realistic photos, videos, and films. It can duplicate voices and turn still photos into moving media, which can leave consumers with a false impression of reality. For example, AI “actress” Tilly Norwood has thousands of followers and a new AI-generated song. While nothing about her is real, that hasn’t stopped thousands of people from following her on social media.
Mr. Khadar also spoke about AI’s evolving power. He explained that early versions of ChatGPT or Gemini were error-prone and struggled with simple math or accurate instructions. Today, these same systems can pass the Bar Exam in under two hours. For reference, the Bar Exam is one of the most challenging professional tests. In 2023, only 58% of the 66,174 humans who took the exam passed it within the two-day, 12-hour timeframe. It takes a human 10–12 weeks to prepare for the test; it takes AI only a few minutes to “study” the information and outscore humans in a fraction of the time.
Mr. Shumer’s blog issued stark warnings about mass layoffs in “white-collar” industries. Mr. Khadar agreed that AI will impact human work, but he acknowledged a catch: we cannot underestimate human creativity and its ability to come up with new industries and jobs. After all, an “influencer” was not a job 10 years ago.
Companies also still need customers to buy their products. If people don’t have jobs, they cannot afford to live, and the industries relying on robots will suffer. As a result, no one truly knows how much AI will impact our economy or if the most extreme warnings will come true.
Eighth-grader Teddy Grzybowski attended the lecture with an open mind but left with that sense of uncertainty. “It was interesting to debate and question,” Teddy said. “I found that we really don’t have a lot of answers about what it will become. I personally don’t like it. As an artist, I think it is taking the soul out of creativity… it is losing that unique human quality.”
Seventh-grader Francesca Prati also left with mixed feelings. “I think it will help our community, but it can also be very harmful and possibly even dangerous to mankind,” Francesca said. “I learned that AI can make mistakes, and if people post false information online, it can alter AI’s response.”
