“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” ~George Bernard Shaw
Years ago, I had an office in Palo Alto at a technology center. While my office was on the other side of the building, we would have presentations and demos of various technological advances and prototypes.
It was there in 1994 that I saw the Internet for the first time. The research folks were demonstrating a Netscape web browser, which was the dominant browser at the time. (It eventually lost virtually all of its share to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.) I didn’t totally understand what I was seeing, but it soon became clearer as information was being revealed. Websites designed for everyday use began to emerge. The commercialization of the internet really took off around 1995, with the rise of companies like Amazon and eBay. Within a year, everyone in my company had an email address and we moved to being totally paperless by 1996.
One of the other demos I remember was an Artificial Intelligence (AI) model. Lately, it seems like everywhere you read, there’s an article about AI. I first remember hearing about the AI concept in the mid-70s. At the time, it all sounded like science fiction to me. But clearly, it’s not. It’s here today with major cloud providers like Google Cloud Platform (Vertex AI, Google AI), Microsoft Azure, and Amazon Web Services (SageMaker), as well as platforms like Grok3, TensorFlow, PyTorch, and OpenAI. These platforms provide a wide range of tools and services for developing, training, and deploying AI models.
I’ve been experimenting with ChatGPT for about a year and really like it. But as they say in computer speak: garbage in/garbage out… So, I’ve also found that there are sometimes facts/information that don’t make sense. I find myself verifying information from time to time. But I can see so many practical uses for it - from writing letters to writing research papers… it’s definitely going to impact writers, artists, students, teachers and many others.
Why does all this matter? What’s the big deal? Why should we care about AI?
More and more companies are using AI to provide better customer service. AI can help eliminate wait times and respond better to customer issues. AI also learns from past interactions and will answer future topics based on what has been known.
All this means that AI provides a more personalized experience for the individual. The more an individual uses AI, the more personalized their experience becomes. This means they don’t have to wait on hold or wait for long email responses from customer service representatives. Instead, they get an answer quickly, sometimes in real-time, which is much more convenient for the customer.
In addition to providing a better customer service experience, AI can help make operating a business easier. With AI in place, a company only needs so many people answering calls or emails because AI can take over most of this work. This saves time and money for both the company and the customer. (source: thoughtful.ai)
Just as the printing press replaced the laborious and time-consuming scribes processing manuscripts; just as the Industrial Revolution, shifted agrarian and handicraft economies to industrial and machine-manufacturing-dominated ones and urbanization; just as the computer replaced "human computers" who had performed complex calculations or connected phones using switchboards or typists being replaced with word processing applications; just as robotics replaced human workers in repetitive, manual tasks across various industries, including manufacturing and logistics… AI is the next wave of change to our world.
This time thousands of jobs will be lost in call centers replacing customer service representatives and telemarketing personnel. Since AI excels at handling large volumes of data, this will make data entry clerks and processors vulnerable to automation. Tasks like bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing can use AI tools. In retail, AI-powered systems can handle things like inventory management, checkout, and even customer interaction, impacting retail jobs. Self-driving technology is advancing rapidly, potentially affecting roles like truck drivers and delivery personnel. We’re already seeing AI being used in both the legal and medical professions.
So, just as the industrial revolution changed the fundamental nature of our country, AI probably will as well. What will be the outcome for all the workers, who will be replaced by AI? Just as with every revolution, new and unanticipated jobs will surface so how will people be educated and trained? And how will AI change the basic structure and fabric of our society? These are pretty significant questions that need to be addressed and thought through from a strategic planning perspective.
And what about the security of our society?
Recently, an incident involving the use of artificial intelligence to impersonate Secretary of State Marco Rubio was in the news. An impostor used AI-generated voice technology to mimic Rubio's voice and contacted foreign ministers, a U.S. senator, and a state governor. The attacker invited targets to communicate on the Signal app. The aim of the impersonation was likely to gain access to sensitive information or accounts.
This situation highlighted the escalating threat of AI voice scams, etc. These incidents are becoming increasingly sophisticated and harder to detect. Cybersecurity experts emphasize the need for stronger defenses against AI-powered impersonation and the potential for these technologies to be used for malicious purposes, impacting individuals, businesses, and even national security.
As this administration continues to focus our country on the Jeffrey Epstein conspiracy, on building FOTUS’s personal police force using ICE, on damaging relationships with allies and trading partners, on destroying the rule of law and the Department of Justice, on rounding up grandmothers and gardeners to put into concentration camps, on attacking scientific development, university research, the free press and media companies, on changing the focus of the FBI away from cybersecurity dangers to immigration investigations, and basically taking our country backwards to the Gilded Age….
….one can only wonder what the rest of world is doing as the AI Revolution comes roaring in with the next wave of change.
“Trump ran for another term not because he had any clue how to transform America for the 21st century. He ran in order to stay out of jail and to get revenge on those who had tried to hold him accountable to the law. I doubt he has ever spent five minutes studying the work force of the future.” I Have Never Been More Afraid for My Country’s Future
If you’re interested in following AI, Axios has a great website that provides articles:
Thought for the day in honor of his birthday…
"First we build the tools, then they build us."
~ Marshall McLuhan
Must Read Articles:
China Is Quickly Eroding America’s Lead in the Global AI Race
Chinese artificial-intelligence companies are loosening the U.S.’s global stranglehold on AI, challenging American superiority and setting the stage for a global arms race in the technology. In Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia, users ranging from multinational banks to public universities are turning to large language models from Chinese companies such as startup DeepSeek and e-commerce giant Alibaba as alternatives to American offerings such as ChatGPT….While American AI companies give priority to the pursuit of major breakthroughs in a race to build artificial superintelligence, China’s AI industry is focused far more on using AI to build practical applications—an emphasis that could help it win new users quickly…
The less dominant American AI companies are, the less power the U.S. will have to set global standards for how the technology should be used, industry analysts say. That opens the door for Beijing to use Chinese models as a Trojan horse for disseminating information that reflects its preferred view of the world, some warn.
Is AI sparking a cognitive revolution that will lead to mediocrity and conformity?
The economic and cultural implications are profound. What happens to the writer who no longer struggles with the perfect phrase, or the designer who no longer sketches dozens of variations before finding the right one? Will they become increasingly dependent on these cognitive prosthetics, similar to how using GPS diminishes navigation skills? And how can human creativity and critical thinking be preserved in an age of algorithmic abundance?
Unveiling the Societal Impact: AI and the Changing Demographic Landscape
As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to reshape the landscape of technology and society, its influence on global demographics emerges as a pivotal factor shaping our collective future…. the intricate interplay between AI advancements and evolving demographics, exploring the multifaceted implications for individuals, communities, and nations worldwide.
Quote of the day:
“AI’s integration into governance is critical in 2025 because it addresses pressing global challenges: growing populations, complex policy demands, and the need for rapid, data-driven decisions. Governments leveraging AI can enhance public trust through transparency, reduce bureaucratic inefficiencies, and deliver services tailored to citizens’ needs. For businesses, AI governance tools represent a booming market, with opportunities to develop innovative solutions. Understanding this intersection is vital for anyone invested in the future of public administration or tech entrepreneurship.”
~ Ratneshwar Prasad Sinha
What I’m reading today…
The Trump Administration’s AI Action Plan Is Coming. Here’s What to Look For.
There is no set formula for writing, coordinating, and releasing national strategies or action plans. What makes it in—and what does not—can be just as consequential, and just as revealing, as the content itself. Just as importantly, how something is said can signal as much about the path ahead as what is said. Given the stakes for AI development, deployment, and use, the forthcoming AI Action Plan warrants close scrutiny along all these dimensions. Where the U.S. government takes AI strategy and policy will have far-reaching consequences—for Americans’ jobs, their lives, and their place in the world.
Netflix admits it used generative AI in a big sci-fi hit to cut costs
Netflix used generative AI to create a scene in the sci-fi series The Eternaut — a first for one of the streamer’s original shows or films. During an earnings call on Thursday, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said the use of AI was faster than using traditional visual effects tools and helped cut costs.
GOP Lawmakers Wage Tug-of-War Over AI Regulation
What form regulation of AI should take is a matter that has divided congressional Republicans. On one side are those who want a light regulatory touch so that American companies can create new AI models to compete with China’s. On the other are those who worry about the revolutionary economic and social changes, such as job losses, that AI is set to bring and see a need for stringent regulations in some areas….
As it stands, lawmakers in all 50 states have introduced AI-related legislation this year, with dozens of bills passed. But there is no federal framework to govern AI, and removing the ability of states to regulate it in the absence of a national proposal could subject American citizens to an environment of unconstrained change that could transform society. But Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, the moratorium’s main proponent in the Senate, is still bullish on the idea of preventing states from enacting an array of potentially conflicting AI regulations. He told reporters this week that the moratorium would “absolutely” come back, though “time will tell” in what form.
A.I. Is About to Solve Loneliness. That’s a Problem
Five years ago, the idea that a machine could be anyone’s confidant would have sounded outlandish, a science-fiction premise. These days, it’s a research topic. In recent studies, people have been asked to interact with either a human or a chatbot and then to rate the experience. These experiments usually reveal a bias: if people know they’re talking to a chatbot, they’ll rate the interaction lower. But in blind comparisons A.I. often comes out ahead. In one study, researchers took nearly two hundred exchanges from Reddit’s r/AskDocs, where verified doctors had answered people’s questions, and had ChatGPT respond to the same queries. Health-care professionals, blind to the source, tended to prefer ChatGPT’s answers—and judged them to be more empathic. In fact, ChatGPT’s responses were rated “empathic” or “very empathic” about ten times as often as the doctors’.
Kids Are in Crisis. Could Chatbot Therapy Help?
The idea behind Woebot was never that it would replace in-person counseling. Rather, it was a tool that could keep patients engaged in the therapeutic process, help them practice coping skills and offer some immediate relief in difficult moments. That experience could, in turn, make their regular sessions — scheduled at whatever intervals the therapist recommended — more productive. Any problems that patients could solve with Woebot alone probably didn’t need to be talked about in therapy; as a result, patients could spend more time working with their therapist on issues that persisted or eluded the chatbot’s capabilities.
1 big thing: Zuck's AI moonshot
The U.S. government is already struggling to recruit top researchers and scientists. A remotely talented AI specialist can now assume that riches in the tens of millions are attainable. So why sacrifice to serve in government?
Amazon lays off hundreds of employees in cloud unit after AI warning from CEO
Amazon has laid off hundreds of employees from its Amazon Web Services (AWS) division, marking another significant round of cuts at the company. The move comes just weeks after CEO Andy Jassy said the growing use of generative artificial intelligence would likely reduce the number of people needed for certain jobs across Amazon.
European Union Unveils Rules for Powerful A.I. Systems
Under the guidelines, tech companies will have to provide detailed breakdowns about the content used for training their algorithms, something long sought by media publishers concerned that their intellectual property is being used to trained the A.I. systems. Other rules would require the companies to conduct risk assessments to see how their services could be misused for things like creating biological weapons that pose a risk to public safety.
Europe Builds AI Infrastructure With NVIDIA to Fuel Region’s Next Industrial Transformation
India is taking a distinctive approach to the global race for artificial intelligence (AI) supremacy. While the United States and China focus on AI for economic dominance and national security, India’s vision revolves around AI autonomy through the development of homegrown AI solutions that are closely linked to its development goals.
CEOs push AI and computer science as a grad
More than 200 CEOs signed a letter urging state leaders to mandate artificial intelligence and computer science classes as a high school graduation requirement…Students who attend high schools that offer a computer science course end up earning 8% higher salaries than those who don't, regardless of career path or whether they attend college, according to a report by the Brookings Institution.
AI Is Reshaping the Workplace, but Entry-Level Hires Are Way Ahead of the Game
The best-case outcome, they said, is that AI will change people’s relationship with work—freeing up time may allow people to tie their identity less to their jobs, and allow them to pursue more hobbies, or more educational pursuits. As Puntoni put it, “Seeing gen AI as a threat is really uninspiring.”
3 AI Side Hustles You Can Start Without Leaving Your Day Job
Artificial Intelligence isn’t here to do all the work for you, but it can automate repetitive tasks, generate ideas quickly, and reduce the time and skill barriers that once made side hustles inaccessible to the average person.
AI-generated video gave victim a voice at his killer’s sentencing in Arizona
In what’s believed to be a first in U.S. courts, Pelkey’s family used AI to create a video using his likeness to give him a voice. The AI rendering of Pelkey told the shooter during the sentencing hearing last week in Phoenix that it was a shame they had to meet that day in 2021 under those circumstances — and that in another life, the two of them probably could have been friends.
Can A.I. Find Cures for Untreatable Diseases—Using Drugs We Already Have?
He focussed on a central irony: the medication that saved his life already existed, and nobody had thought to give it to him. “There is a systemic problem,” he told me. “There are all these drugs available, sitting in your local pharmacy, but they aren’t being used to treat all the conditions they could.” But in the years since the book came out—and, more specifically, since the rise of powerful A.I. models—Fajgenbaum has started to find solutions for that problem. He co-founded a nonprofit called Every Cure, which trained an A.I. model on what he described as “the world’s knowledge of every disease, gene, protein, and molecule, as well as the interactions between them.”
AI videos are tricking tourists into visiting places that don’t exist. That’s just the beginning
AI has made the impossible indistinguishable from the actual, and now it’s turning even vacation planning into a minefield of false experiences.
Learning to Live With A.I. Read more from the New York Times:
New Opportunities for People: It might take your job, but A.I. will create new (human) careers.
Widespread Use: The hosts of The Times’s “Hard Fork” podcast on how everyone seems to be using A.I. — for everything.
Scholarship Tool: The winners of the A.I. race might soon transform the stories that historians tell about the past.
Never Saying Goodbye: After a man’s terminal diagnosis, his family decides to make a virtual avatar that lives on after his death.
What I am watching…
What I read every day…
BTW - just saw an AI post that conflated monkey and apes, i.e. seemed to think that Monkeys was a n umbrella term that included apes. Not so, apes are not monkeys. We need to fact check everything. The emphasis is on "artificial" and not "intelligence." How to fact check crowd-sourced "intelligence" will be a problem.