I recently saw a Substack post from a technology analyst titled “Crowdstrike publicly confirms AI Caused worldwide computer outage.” Since none of the other coverage I’ve seen suggested that AI was the cause of the outage, I looked into it. My conclusion: AI did not cause the outage, and it’s irresponsible to suggest that it…
If you’re watching the Olympics, you’ve probably seen this sad Google commercial about a father who wants his daughter to use the Google Gemini AI assistant to write a fan letter to her favorite athlete, hurdler Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone. Here’s the commercial: Let’s put it to the test Ok, Google, let’s see what you’ve got. Here’s…
Use ChatGPT to close more leads! Use ChatGPT to write more blog posts! Umm, no. Here are some clickbait headlines that, if you see them, you should immediately stop following the source: Creating makes us human ChatGPT and similar tools are good helpers. They can read and summarize vast amounts of information. ChatGPT is good…
In its latest announcement of the recent update ChatGPT-4o, OpenAI demonstrated how it more naturally interacts in voice conversations. (You can see some of that in this clip.) The AI’s voice, known as Sky, sounds a lot like the popular actress Scarlett Johansson. The question I’m pondering today is, if the voice was actually built…
Newsletter 44: Getting old means not giving a damn about stuff that doesn’t matter. Also, why you shouldn’t buy at Amazon’s book sale, Google and OpenAI announce great steps forward, why Joe Mazzulla is a profound philosopher, plus three people to follow and three books to read. On not giving a damn If you’ve had…
Newsletter 43: Free advice is the lubricant of the business world; PRH proprietary AI tool; hybrid insights, plus three people to follow and three books to read. Beyond the old-boy network The working world runs on free advice. This may or may not have been visible to you when you started working, but unless you’re…
Newsletter 39: Ignorance is a curse and a cult, Google and Meta rationalize AI ripoffs, the reality behind “birds aren’t real,” plus three people to follow and three books to read. Can we please stop idolizing ignorance? Twenty years ago, the Boston Red Sox did something that seemed impossible: after a supposedly cursed championship drought…
Great writers, thinkers, and researchers see patterns that others cannot. They then tell you about what they see and what you can do about it. Of course, of the things AI is best at is recognizing patterns. Does this mean writers, thinkers, and researchers are going to become obsolete? Not quite. First off, people see…
People have so much trouble with the flaws in AI tools because they are so different from everything else we do with our computing devices. Consider any productivity application you use: a spreadsheet, a programming language, an app, anything, doesn’t matter. All of these applications have two qualities: AI chatbots violate both of those rules….