They are in the news – every day and all over. Chatbots are doing homework, writing novels and poems, taking exams, solving mysteries, fooling people, sometimes fooling themselves. It’s incredible – but everyone is worried. It doesn’t make sense. Shouldn’t we be celebrating?
technology
You may remember – or seen pictures of – ancient computers. Screens with text and a keyboard attached. Or even older, a teletype – a 60 lbs typewriter with a big roll of paper, really slow and very noisy. Attached to some computer in a room nearby. A noisy monster guarded by important-looking men (yes, seriously!) in gray lab-coats. Stone age. 50 years ago. That’s where ChatGPT is at today.
After decennia of refusing to accept, even see reality, it has become undeniable. The world is falling apart. And instead of rushing to fix it, we’re looking for someone or something to blame. It didn’t take long, it’s here – in our midst, ubiquitous. The Internet.
You may remember one of the Beatles’ first hits, ‘Can’t buy me love’. There are many reasons why the song lives on. One of them that there is – even these days – a lot if stuff you cannot buy. Like my mother in law observed about her situation at a care facility recently: I need hearts more than hands – and they cannot be bought.
USB-C is the law. And so much better. Let’s move on, right? Of course. Except USB-A is all over the place. And it’s not going away any time soon. The reason? Simplicity rules …
Consider this scenario: A huge machine the size of several football fields producing products (or services) vital to the world. In the process, it guzzles more energy than a steel plant, ‘eats’ data by the shipload (think supertankers) – delivered via pipes the size of the cables carrying the Golden…
Zero trust is an interesting concept. ‘Don’t trust anyone – ever’ seems so simple and so enticing now that the world is falling apart because we decided to trust the untrustworthy. We created huge vulnerabilities, now they’re haunting us. Can zero trust work outside the narrow technical settings in which it has already proven itself?
Autonomous cars are saving lives – every day. Silently. We don’t notice. Actually – most of us don’t know. What we do know is that selfdriving cars are dangerous. According to the news, they are frequently involved in accidents and kill people. Two very different pictures of the same reality. Which one is right?
It’s not about bombs, threats or potential annihilation, but about nuclear energy. The ‘outcast that came in from the cold’ almost like a saviour in an increasingly energy starved world. But there is a problem that most of us were unaware of: Even nuclear power needs fuel. And guess what – that fuel is coming from Russia.
It sounds brutal, but those of us who’ve built businesses know it’s the truth. Business – like nature – is trial and error, death feeding life, pain feeding gain, survival of the fittest – meaning ‘the most adaptable’. Therefore, government ‘life support’ for businesses in rough times is almost always a bad choice. Bad for business, bad for the future.