There is a daily flood of often contradictory posts regarding the tremendous and immediate value of Artificial Intelligence (AI). But are we to believe our lying eyes?
This picture of wiring stupidity might as well have been taken in my front yard. Years of shoddy workmanship by firms that do not care in a city that cares even less about its neighborhoods is the result. But that is not the theme of this post.
The artificial intelligence software sector looks like this photograph. Tracing connections and thoughts is almost impossible and may require AI to understand AI. Is that even possible?
AI Is On Fire
“We must implement AI because everyone else is doing it” is the mantra. Expressed by those selling AI products and services, organizations feel pressure to buy immature code as individuals are told their careers are over and robots will replace them in the next few years. This pundit challenges this rant.
There is a method to the madness and order can be made out of the chaos of the “new kid on the block.” It is not necessary to panic or make quick irrational decisions.
Published in 2023, I co-authored the book, Smart Manufacturing: Integrating Transformational Technologies for Competitiveness and Sustainability and the just released, Navigating the Data Minefields: Management’s Guide to Better Decision-Making. Moreover, the next forthcoming book by CRC Press, The Transformation of Our Spreadsheet Society: Moving Towards a Nonlinear, Big Data Enabled AI Environment, should be released in early 2026.
The focus of all these volumes is to help management and non-IT individuals better understand game-changing technologies, how to assess, procure and deploy them and attain superior economic value for the firm. Additionally, we address what individuals must do to keep their skills and career current and future proofed.
I mention this because we must all remain clear eyed in this current caldron of chaos. Rudyard Kipling is famous for his poem that begins, “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs.” Our generation should learn from this call to calm, rational thinking (readers should read the entire very powerful poem).
Those not familiar with the IT field may not know but the sector even has a name for the development curve AI technologies are on. The research firm, Gardner has developed a tool that can be useful. “The AI Hype Cycle is Gartner’s graphical representation of the maturity, adoption metrics and business impact of AI technologies (including GenAI). It helps organizations understand where different AI innovations are on the path to becoming mainstream, why they are where they are and what these innovations mean in the context of the overall AI landscape.” While the Hype Cycle is a commercial offering, a great deal is written, and a high-level understanding is readily available to all from online sources.
The Storm Will Pass
AI offers tremendous promise across all human endeavors. At the moment it is a new shiny object that entices but still has a lot of unknowns. It will mature and become as ubiquitous as the Internet.
The rate that individuals embrace change varies widely; however, change is a fact of life, and I believe this change will benefit more than it hinders. After all, other generations have undergone significant change that we now take for granted, i.e., automobiles (aka horseless carriage), smart devices, etc.
