Paying it Forward: AI and Quality of Thought #107
Ready fire aim. Hands with six fingers. AI or human, garbage in, garbage out -- training matters. AI's, as valuable collaborators, challenge humans to stretch boundaries in search of better outcomes.
Jack Browne opinion column
March 9, 2025 Times Record News
We make decisions dozens, sometimes hundreds of times every day. Do you think about how you think?
Some practice 'Ready, fire, aim,' jumping into action without a plan. The other end of the spectrum is 'paralysis by analysis' where everyone talks about the obvious next step, but the decision is delayed till the next meeting.
The steps I learned are plan, analyze, commit, fail-fast test, execute, celebrate success and have an assessment of the project post mortem.
If you haven’t played with artificial intelligence you should. Generally known as 'AI,' it can be a worthy 'advisor.' I asked AI to review my two-page plan to grow Southwest Rotary’s flag subscriber business.
I had a one-pager detailing growth from 750 subscribers to 1,000. AI gave good feedback that helped me as I hadn’t considered some things it highlighted.
People are using AI right now. The hype says AI will do the job; you don’t need so many employees. Business question: Do you know what your people do and where efficiency could be improved? If not, then changing and cutting people isn’t necessarily the right first step for success as many are learning.
Perhaps planning by answering, 'What problem are we trying to solve?' would be the right first step. In understanding how AI works, start with this one-minute video by CommBasics Minute: 'The dirty secret of AI,' on YouTube.
'Free' AI is trained with your data: e.g. email, tweets, etc. Google, Microsoft, X, etc. all utilize user data, as allowed by licenses. Opening an app, users accept the terms unread.
But AI only knows what it’s been taught. Commercial engagements have a different license protecting business confidential data.
Your public model was trained on the 'public’s data' and then 'schooled' with your proprietary data 'graduating,' knowing your business. Consider training your AI using your Salesforce customer data, then using suggested AI scenarios in your business strategy development process.
Don’t test this on your public AI! Your competitor could get that answer. I requested an image showing lighting jumping between my hands. AI hallucination — didn’t know I had six fingers; I trained it for you.
AI is young, not even juvenile age yet, and not ready to take the car keys.
Eager to help, ask AI for an opinion, then qualify!
Jack Browne is a community activist and past technology engineer, sales and marketing executive at Motorola, MIPS Technologies and other companies.
How are the children doing ? Visit his website at www.newcollarcoach.com