Articles and Posts

Don’t fall for the hype but also don’t dismiss a person or thing just because it is hyped.

Today I gave our client access to an assistant we built to help knowledge sharing and improve customer outcomes. They didn’t come to us for AI. They came to is with a business challenge. The tech support lead was thrilled and convinced it will immediately help his team. The potential of responsibly engineered AI: a tool to help skilled people perform and improve their work-life balance.

United States is the place God cut down the middle to keep his things in.

I am using generative ai tied to a more traditional create-update-delete application to create living documents. Rather than read pages, you converse with them. Your learnings improve future conversations. Those notes we create that no one ever reads become findable and relevant.

Any mode of communication (AI assisted or not) is going to be used by people to assuage their needs and wants. How to reduce the harm of the outcome is a topic for the ethical use of technology. It is also a debate over social justice and morality.

Humans need to own accountability for actions they take informed by data generated with AI assistance. We also need to apply its use equitably and with consideration for the harm it might create.

“Rite Aid deployed artificial intelligence-based facial recognition technology and used it to falsely flag some consumers as previously identified shoplifters, the FTC said… Deployed in hundreds of stores, in New York and Los Angeles, Rite Aid deployed the technology in largely lower-income, non-white neighborhoods.”

https://lnkd.in/euAxc5jC

Turns out the world is full of capable people trying to make a positive impact - maybe not “full of” - but many, many. Enough to imagine spending my remaining time collaborating with them and not abetting not them.

Viewed outside the fortifications of self, all we are is what we do and the impact that has on others.

With generative AI, when we get a poor response, we iterate, rephrase, and clarify the question. We don’t expect a better result by scolding it to work harder. Or condescending to it, yelling at, or insulting it. But that’s how we treat humans. How’s that working out for us?

“Responsible technology is an approach that aligns technological advancements and organizational conduct with the wellbeing of people and the planet.”

Highlights privacy by design, ethical use of AI, DEIB, accessibility, and carbon consumption.

My immediate question to myself is in my day to day work, how do I succeed or fail to approach a “responsible tech mindset?”

It takes discipline and courage to incrementally improve the things around us and our own behavior, especially when fear yells ‘Run!’ and disappointment whispers ‘Give up.’

As a child, I didn’t feel a right to anger. Embarrassed by its force. Lacking means and ways to reddress its causes. Middle aged, I am a work in progress. I fear its unreason, self-pity and righteousness. But I have come to love anger’s spark and indispensability. The demand it places on me to defend the things I care about.