The Executive Brief
As a technical leader, one of the most important things you can do right now is to make sure you get AI implemented correctly for your company. Company leadership wants to know when the company will start using AI, not if, and it’s up to you to figure out to get that done.
Daunting, I know.
The “how” question is where things get nuanced. How should the company use AI responsibly? How do you test the effectiveness and safety of the tools you build or buy? If you are building AI features into your product, there are even more nuanced questions about the stack, architecture, performance, and security.
To address those questions, you need to get started on both the strategic elements and the tactical ones. Educate yourself and delegate finding some of the answers to others.
The clock is ticking. If you haven’t started yet, the best time to get started is today.
Btw, before you dive into it, here are the most interesting bits in technology from the last week.
Sam Altman, OpenAI's CEO, Microsoft chief Satya Nadella, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai and other tech luminaries are joining the government's Artificial Intelligence Safety and Security Board. The AI board will be working with and advising the Department of Homeland Security on how it can safely deploy AI within the country's critical infrastructure.
Will this lead to sensible legislation that balances safety and innovation or will it enable innovation at the expense of safety. Keep your eye on this one.A Maryland man working at a high school was arrested for allegedly impersonating the school's principal using AI software to make it seem as if he made racist and antisemitic remarks. The recording was inflammatory enough to prompt a police visit to advise on protective security measures for staff.
Speaking of AI security, tech and security leaders should take notice of this story. While this may be a tale of revenge gone wrong, hackers are starting to use this technology against enterprise firms. For example, earlier this year a deepfake video conference call was used to scam a company out of $25 million.
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AI is Not “Just a Tool” or Is It?
In board meetings across the world the question of AI and how to leverage it the right way for companies is coming up constantly since about March or April of 2023.
All eyes turn to the CTO or CPO in these discussions. And they must come up with answers!
Unfair, isn’t it?
This technology just came out and we’re supposed to know all the answers to both how it works and how it will help the business.
Yes, well, that’s the job. In our roles we constantly act like Nostradamus predicting the future. And with AI it’s the same scenario. Game changing technology has been developed and we need to figure out a way to leverage it to create value for our companies.
But there is one difference this time: we better get it right because the upside is too big to mess this up. On the macro scale there isn’t much room for error for CPTOs on AI.
AI is not like Crypto, it’s not like Social, it’s not like Cloud, it’s not even like the Internet itself. AI was in our hearts and minds well before those other technologies were even a glimmer in the thoughts of Satoshi, Zuckerberg, Bezos or Tim (Berners-Lee). AI as a concept goes back to Ancient Greek mythology.
AI will be as big as the Internet…squared. It won’t exactly be Terminator AGI levels in the next 10 years. But it will come close that’s for sure (itself a scary thought).
In the meantime, as CTO or CPO you’ve got a job to do with AI. And I’m going to tell you a little secret about it that will save you a lot of pain & struggle.
Spend time learning about the technical innards of AI on your own time. If you want to help your career and company focus on one thing and one thing only: the right use-cases for AI.
You can shepherd your business through the AI revolution by helping yourself and your peers to identify and think through the best use-cases for your company that genuinely and significantly move the needle on the things that matter most to your organization.
If you get stuck in the tech weeds you won’t really help. Leave that to your personal intellectual exploration time.
Closing Thoughts
What most of your bosses (CEO and the Board) want is practical implementation of AI to drive bigger success for the company. And they know figuring this out is super hard. And they know every other company in your space is asking the exact same question. And they know the AI arms race is on. They just want you to win it!
Now, what are you going to do about it?