I’m continuing to explore AI. I haven’t done much with image creation yet, though I have done some.
Came up with this idea after making a smart-alec comment to a colleague. Just a natural flow from there. Simplest of prompts: ‘Please create an image of a donkey in a lab coat lecturing college students, label it “smart ass”‘.
Yes, it’s silly, but shows the power of these tools. Maybe a minute of effort.
PS, that includes the “featured image” on this post.
Anyway, AI is a critical tool and not going away anytime soon. I intend to study it and understand both its strengths and weaknesses. It will impact so much tech, from coding to network management. I’m doing my best to be proactive, not reactive, to emerging tech.
AI is seemingly everywhere right now, and I’ve written a bit about it before. As I’ve started diving more deeply into it, I see all the hype about how AI will be disrupting work. Well, I’ve developed a somewhat contrarian viewpoint to the prevalent viewpoint of “AI taking over everything”. Here are a few random thoughts on the whole thing right now.
A lot of what AI is replacing now, and expected to in the near future, runs on the assumption that it will remain (nearly) free. However, most of the current costs are funded by investor dollars. As MIT recently reported, 95% of AI initiatives are failing to generate value. So, the only way companies are gaining value from AI is via its low cost. And the operating costs are significant. Data centers are expensive, both to build and to operate. GPUs aren’t cheap to buy. The environmental costs are steep. And, right now, those costs are being paid from investor dollars. When those dry up (investors need to make a return on that investment at some point, and that needs to be greater than the investment as well as the current operational costs. I expect the point when investors stop feeling FOMO and start worrying about making a return will be coming soon. I expect that when the costs become the responsibility of the consumer, the price will escalate abruptly and steeply. Will a junior developer really be displaced by ChatGPT or CoPilot? Or will we suddenly find junior developers much more cost-effective?
Adding to this, I’ve seen discussion about how AI infrastructure investment is potentially masking a recession. Thus, I’m concerned that we’re missing the weakening economy, things like continued tech-sector layoffs, and are not paying attention to some big economic weaknesses. If AI investment dries up, and layoffs start compounding, the dominoes start to fall, and that brings a significant recession/depression. Which will muddle this significantly.
Anyway, I think that we are in a bubble regarding AI. Like the Dot Com bubble, I think that AI will herald significant technological changes. AI is a powerful tool, and will continue to be so. However, I am confident that the techno-dystopia predicted by AI hyper-meisters will not materialize. I’m not sure we can even conceptualize what it will look like at the end of this cycle. But I am confident that those who have mastered AI will benefit greatly from the coming revolution. There are opportunities, and now is the time to make the investment in understanding them.
Cassidy Williams is a tech blogger I’ve followed for years. Recently, she wrote about her views on AI Usage, which I find exceptionally relevant right now. She references the “AI Manifesto” by Damola Morenikeji. Damola suggests creating an /AI section on your page, which I think I’ll do soon. But I’m just starting the exploration now.
I believe the transparency around our respective use of AI is critical. Being able to trust what you see is becoming harder.
Me? I’ve used AI as something of an editor for this site, and have explored using it to create pages. I’ve never been 100% satisfied with what Gemini or ChatGPT has created, but I will say it’s carved my workflows significantly. I don’t envision ever wholly turning things over to AI, and see the possibility of adopting Cassidy’s attitude of “Everything on this website is written by me, personally, not an AI.” This quote she shared really gives me pause: “If you couldn’t be bothered to write something, I won’t be bothered to read it”. Yeah, I feel that. I know there’s a reason it’s called “AI slop” and the last thing I want to do is contribute to the enshittification of the internet.
So, have you created a “Slash AI” page? If so, have you shared it to this list (https://slashai.page/)? If not, but you want to, submit it here. Are you planning on it? Let me know! I’m intensely curious.
I’ve been adjusting my studies to focus on data. Right now, I’ve working on mastering Power BI, a Microsoft data analytics tool. Yesterday, as I’m finally starting to dive deep, I had a moment of sadness. I remember a role where this tool didn’t exist. I was cleaning up data from a multitude of sources, just me, Excel, and a wee bit of Visual Basic. And I had to tweak the process every month. The powerful tools in Power BI, and Power Query, would’ve been so helpful. I’m looking forward to what I can do with these modern tools.
I’ve heard a LOT about the expected impacts of AI on developers. When I was laid off right at the beginning of the pandemic, I opted to make a career pivot into Web Development, so I’ve paid attention to this trend closely. Add in all the lay-offs within the whole developer community, and this career, so recently highly lucrative, has become rather bleak. So much so that I’ve been looking backwards at returning to admin work (which is one of my two jobs right now). Now I see that admin work will be getting hit pretty hard by AI, too.
Earlier this week, I was on a Google Meet. With that, we used the built-in tool to create meeting notes. And, my God, it worked nicely! I was quite impressed. Now, as a long-time admin, taking and distributing meeting notes has been a significant part of my work. I’m confident that this will be done by AI going forward. And I expect that transition to be pretty quick.
Another key part of being an admin is scheduling travel. I expected AI to be able to coordinate travel pretty well. So, I did an experiment where I gave ChatGPT a very rough itinerary for a multi-stop business trip, asked it to recommend flights and hotels. It did a nice job with a few extra prompts. I had a pretty solid itinerary within 2 minutes. Impressive.
After just these two considerations, I am confident that AI will revolutionize Admin work significantly. With the job outlook for this work bleak (BLS projects a loss of 12,400 admin jobs between 2024 and 2034), and AI eroding the work, I expect it to become harder to find roles. (Yet it’s the main type of work I’m recruiters reach out to me for…go figure). It makes my decision to pivot to web development during the pandemic, and now shifting to data analysis seem that much more prudent.
On my friend Bill’s most recent blog post, one of the comments made me think. In particular, the notion of handwritten notes being the antithesis of digital. When I first read it, I was reminded of plotters. So, I jumped headfirst into this rabbit hole. That’s how I came across this project:
I found this whole thing fascinating. However, I’m left to wonder where the lines are between what’s truly, exclusively human, and the robot. What do you think of this?
Anyway, this looks like a fun project. Maybe someday I’ll have time enough to explore it in more depth than just watching the video.
Ok, on the whole, I like Phone Link. Being able to send texts from my computer, with my keyboard, is something I deeply appreciate. I used to use a tool called MightyText, but then Microsoft launched Phone Link, and it’s hard to beat free. But Phone Link has a glaring weakness, one that’s been getting on my nerves the past few weeks.
Somehow, I got on the Republicans’ spam list. I assume one of their tactics is to annoy folks like me. Which, I guess, means they’re successful. I’m annoyed. They’re averaging about 10-15 texts per day! Now, my phone’s spam filters are working pretty darn well, and somewhere around 90% of spam messages are caught. On My Phone! For some daft reason, Microsoft opted for ALL messages on the phone to be synced. Why did they think that syncing spam messages was a good idea? Ugh!
Rubbing salt in the wound, as I was researching if there was any way to fix this (some setting I’d missed, perhaps?), I found several complaints about this issue…going back to 2023! So, it’s been a known issue, but not a priority to fix? Sigh…
Google opted to win this battle. I discovered that Google has their own app, Google Messages for Web. Google was able to build their app so that spam caught by their filters stays filtered. Huzzah! So, this pleases me greatly. Now if Google’s app let me delete these messages from the computer, it would be perfect. Oh well…
I’m lobbying for spammers to be deported. Not likely, in this case. But one can hope.
I’m a bit behind on my 2025 planning. This “bug” I’ve been fighting has sapped away SO much energy. As I’m FINALLY feeling my energy return (at least more of it) this week, I’m starting to map out what my career direction and focus looks like in 2025 and forward.
Quick summary: I spent the pandemic working on a degree in Information Systems with its main focus on Web Development. In a weird twist of fate, I finished it right as the tech sector meltdown was hitting hardest. Competing with 500k+ tech workers has made the transition challenging. But I did land an IT role. Currently, I work 1/2 time as an IT/Systems Analyst for the Edmonds Waterfront Center, and 1/2 as a “tech savvy” Administrative Assistant. I feel like I’m straddling both my past and my future. My vision of my future, though, is to move full-time into IT/Information Systems. And that’s the plan I’m building.
However, that’s not a narrow enough focus. Within this umbrella is a huge array of roles. Network administrator, help desk analyst, web developer, systems analyst, information security, and data analyst….and there’s plenty more! First world problems, a plethora of riches….you know.
Anyway, focus, right?
After looking over my notes, exploring all the projects I’ve worked on the past few years, reviewed the classes I’ve taken, exploring what I’ve found the most fulfilling, most valuable, and even what I thought was the most fun, I have pretty much narrowed things down to what I’ll call “data systems”.
I’ve worked with data in many settings, and have spend many hours with Excel. And I like this stuff! While studying for my ATA, I got to work with a LOT of database systems and tools. Besides extensive projects in Access, I got to do a lot of work with SQL. Not just MySQL, but also SQL Server, and even a few variants of Oracle. I find this stuff endlessly fascinating. And I see that “data” is a huge growth area in our economy. Between data analytics, data security, data warehouses, and data lakes, there’s a huge need for people who both understand these systems and structures, but also, well, enjoy it! My experience with data is pretty extensive as well. From budget tracking for my teams at both Starbucks and Microsoft, creating dashboards for real estate teams, and tracking projects and feasibility for construction companies, I’ve done a lot.
Looking towards the future, I want to dive deeper into key skills. First, Data Visualization. I have studied design and worked extensively with PowerPoint. Power BI and Tableau are a logical next step. Thus, I’ve started the Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst course on Coursera. I also want to build my skills in Python/R and Statistics. Perhaps via the IBM Data Analyst Cert or Google’s Data Analytics Cert. I’ll evaluate that as I move forward.
I recognize the place of privilege I’m in, where I have all these options that I struggle to choose amongst. For that, I’m grateful.
So, I know some of you have experience in this area. I’d love your thoughts on my framework/vision (I’m still turning it into a plan). And if you have any advice, I’d deeply appreciate your thoughts.
Let’s start with, well, clearly this is an example of the Law of Unintended consequences. These technologies were supposed to make families “better”, to create the most beautiful and brilliant children. And, well, not exactly. People want to be valued as their unique selves. So, I found this line both telling, and rather messed up.
The kids feel like walking science experiments; the parents are disappointed in how their progeny turned out.
Seems like folks fell into the trap of grasping for control. If you thought the folks who hyper-structured their children’s lives so that they would become exactly who they wanted them to be were dysfunctional, imagine being able to go from math camps, piano lessons, and language immersion programs to messing with their DNA.
I kept coming across teens who were in distress about the way they had been created.
Created? That really felt weird to read. The interviewee sums up my thoughts well with this line:
People don’t always realize they are creating a human being and not a piece of furniture.
To me, this highlights the reason every major religion emphasises relinquishing control. Abandoning fear and allowing things/people to just BE is powerful.
Anyway, as the subject of this article states, “I don’t know if anyone’s making sure parents understand that they can’t test-drive a child and then return it.” People are not products! They aren’t resources to extract. They aren’t vehicles to further your ambitions. Sigh…
These tools have some powerful applications, and some of them, I expect, are life-affirming. However, they can leave a mess of multi-generational trauma. Perhaps we can’t prevent every Unintended Consequence, but, I expect, with thoughtful consideration, we could mitigate or eliminate more than we do. One can dream, I suppose.
This article prompted me to Google RSS readers. The first article was the Verge’s “Top 5 RSS Readers“. And the first on that list is Feedly. Well, I remember Feedly, as I set up an account ages ago…and then forgot about it. But I was able to log in and off I went. I have some curating to do, but it’s not really that bad. And I see several sites that I’d stopped tracking in all the mess of email updates. So, that’s a win.
I intend on unsubscribing to gobs of email blog updates, cleaning up my inbox quite a bit. Also, I need to use the “feeds” feature, where I can segment my different feeds.
Do you use an RSS reader? Have a favorite one? Let me know!
