Issue No. 614 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting spotlights a hot-off-the-press book on AI. The author delivers both good news and bad news and says that, yes, we can master AI—“but to do so, we must master ourselves.” Plus, click here to see book recommendations in all 20 management buckets (core competencies), and click here for more book reviews. Also, read my recent review of The Power of Instinct to learn how to enrich your persuasion competencies.
The author of Mastering AI reports that the chief executive of a new online T-shirt company in Portugal announced that he had named ChatGPT as “the CEO” of his start-up!
Attn: CEOs! Update your resumes! Last year, the chief executive of a new online T-shirt company in Portugal announced that he had named ChatGPT as “the CEO” of his start-up. According to Jeremy Kahn, author of Mastering AI, Joáo Ferráo dos Santos named his new company “AIsthetic Apparel” and said he “would simply execute the tasks ChatGPT recommended.” Discover more AI insights in this fascinating must-read book:
I predict you’ll meet dozens of people who will be talking about this book in the months ahead. The project began as a Fortune magazine cover story on OpenAI and the creation of ChatGPT and evolved into this powerhouse overview of artificial intelligence. The author is an award-winning journalist for Fortune and writes their weekly Eye on AI newsletter, plus cochairs Fortune’s Brainstorm AI technology conferences.
Jeremy Kahn is very optimistic about AI, but moderates the good news with ample bad news. Examples:
Chapter 4: Everyone on Autopilot
• Good News. Discussing “the return of the human apprentice,” Kahn lists law firms that are creatively using AI legal software. He quotes Jake Heller, co-founder of Casetext, who says that “AI should make the profession less ‘draining and soul sucking.’” (How would you describe your profession?)
• Bad News. For many gig economy workers (Uber, etc.), they soon discover “that the only way to earn a decent wage is to meet the demanding, sometimes inhumane, expectations of an algorithm.”
• Good News. Walmart uses “My Assistant,” an AI copilot and 50,000 employees have access to this new software aide.
Chapter 12: War at Machine Speed
In August, watch for my review of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Guns of August about World War I. So no surprise, the first chapter I read in Mastering AI was “War at Machine Speed.” Oh, my!
• Bad News. “Deploying autonomous weapons places us on a slippery slope to losing control over warfare. Autonomy inevitably begs more autonomy.” Kahn summarizes the potential results between enemies: “Spy vs. spy becomes AI vs. AI.”
• Bad News. When terrorists and nations have "a new toy for mass murder: artificial intelligence," we will find that AI is an accelerant, not a deterrent, to war—thus “…making conflict more likely and expanding, not limiting, its scope."
• Bad News. Noting the “naked soldier” scenario from Michael Walzer, “a philosopher known for his thinking about the ethics of warfare,” the author believes “the critical issue is that autonomous weapons obliterate the possibility of mercy.” (Must-read!)
Chapter 7: Aristotle in Your Pocket
• Good News. Students cheered the November 2022 release of ChatGPT and labeled it “CheatGPT,” but teachers panicked. Yet Kahn pushes back. “AI will change education. Teachers will need to adopt new methods. But the moral panic and hand-wringing is misplaced.” (He reminds us that CliffsNotes in the 1950s and calculators in the 1970s also created misplaced hysteria.)
• Bad News or Good News? “If the AI revolution helps dethrone the lecture as the primary pedagogical tool in undergraduate education and replaces it with the seminar, that would be no bad thing.” (Attention Church Leaders: Might AI displace the sermon? Is that good or bad?)
• Good News or Bad News? “AI is an existential threat to colleges and universities. But not because of the risk of rampant cheating. No, the real risk to higher education is irrelevancy.”
Good News! View this 7-minute video, "Who Is the Man of the Shroud?" It was created just this week by Jason Pearson using the latest AI tools. View the documentary, The Shroud Face to Face.
Chapter 2: The Voice Inside Your Head
• Bad News. In the section, “The Erasure of Provenance,” Kahn writes, “Memory and its link to learning is just one cognitive ability AI may damage. It could diminish our intellectual powers in other ways, too.” He adds that generative AI, in “providing a confident summarized answer, makes the abandonment of critical thinking all too easy. Anyone who has conversed with ChatGPT or its rivals, Bing, Gemini, and Claude, will know that these chatbots are often wrong, even when they sound right.” He fears “groupthink.”
• Good News/Bad News. The good news is that Kahn’s comprehensive book—efficiently written from a competent reporter’s perspective—sounds the AI alarm and addresses both ethical and moral issues. The bad news: “…our use of AI to write and read for us is just one way this technology could contribute to a risky moral deskilling. More troubling is the delegation of decisions that require moral judgment to AI.”
• Good News. What about AI in the classroom? “Children should also be instructed in ethics. And vitally, they must still learn how to write.” Gratefully, Kahn probes deep on the moral and ethical issues of AI in every chapter. I was reminded of the opportunity for organizations like Gateways to Better Education, and others, that will help educators and parents understand both the pedagogical and the theological issues of AI. (Note: Did you know, for example, that many states address the role of the Bible in state academic standards? Read more here.)
Chapter 5: Pillars of Industry
• Good News. The publishing industry will benefit “…where AI might not just help authors write, but also change the way books are read, changing the industry’s economics.” Example: you will have an “AI reading companion that can answer questions, look up unfamiliar references, or provide literary analysis.” Watch for virtual book clubs also.
• Bad News. The big will get bigger (architectural firms, major movie studios, law firms, etc.), but “midsize businesses will probably fare the worst.” (Read why “the business models of entire fields will be upended.”)
• Good News. This is a wake-up call! AI will enable “personalized product promotion” with more intelligent use of customer data. Example: Domino’s Pizza in Mexico were victims of the old adage that “half of an ad budget is wasted, you just don’t know which half.” Now with AI software, they’ve grouped their customers “into several buckets, and using AI, offered predictions of the best messages, best medium, and best times to reach out to people.” (I love the buckets reference!)
• More Good News. “As a result, Domino’s Mexico saw a 700 percent increase in the return on its Google ad spending and cut customer acquisition costs by 65 percent, while increasing customer retention.” (Wait…what? The author of the book I reviewed last week says it’s not customer differences that matter—it’s “how are our customers alike?”)
THERE’S MORE!
I can’t stop talking about this book—and I thought I was more clued in on AI than many of my colleagues. For six months, I’ve been clipping AI articles and viewing videos from The Wall Street Journal (often 10 or more per week). And yes, “clipping” is accurate. I’m old school with an actual newspaper and scissors. But, I’m astounded at the deep-and-wide content of Mastering AI. The book checks all the boxes and I’ve underlined hundreds of insights, including:
[x] History: ENIAC and the Turing Test (“AI’s Original Sin”)
[x] Authenticity and Trust: ontology and epistemology
[x] Why Microsoft built a data center in Iowa the size of 20 football fields!
[x] Why early innovators hated the term “artificial intelligence” and why “deep learning” was a brilliant term
[x] Why “confabulation,” not “hallucination,” might describe AI’s shortcomings better
Someone on your team needs to read this book. And gift this book to your pastor or priest also! (Note: On the Pails in Comparison Blog, I posted a “compare and contrast” question that I asked ChatGPT and Claude about this book and another book just published.)
TO ORDER FROM AMAZON, click on the title for Mastering AI: A Survival Guide to Our Superpowered Future, by Jeremy Kahn. Listen on Libro (10 hours, 29 minutes). And thanks to the publisher for sending me a review copy.
2) I’ve used OpenAI’s ChatGPT dozens of times for fun and research. Recently, I asked this: “Using the four social styles (Analytical, Driving, Amiable, and Expressive), what are the key questions that each style would ask, after hearing a pastor's Sunday morning sermon?” Here’s ChatGPT's response. QUESTION: How have you used AI recently—and were you pleased or disappointed?
Mastering 100 Must-Read Books - Part 15: Feeble Faith and Flabby Worship
Book #84 of 100: Pursuing God’s Will Together
For your team meeting this week, inspire a team member to lead your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” session by spotlighting Book #84 in Mastering 100 Must-Read Books.
Pursuing God’s Will Together:
A Discernment Practice for Leadership Groups
by Ruth Haley Barton
Books #82 through #86 spotlight five soul-strengthening books to connect you with the God of the Universe. Ruth Haley Barton has the audacity to write, “Just because something is strategic does not necessarily mean it is God’s will for us right now.”
• Read my review.
• Order from Amazon: Pursuing God’s Will Together
• Listen on Libro (6 hours, 59 minutes)
• Download the 100 Must-Read Books list (from John and Jason Pearson).
Warning! This is a dangerous book! Have you every gathered your team or board for a fork-in-the-road decision and prayed for “holy indifference” (a good thing)? Read my review to learn why the author urges you to pray this prayer.
Song #25 of 45: “Mercedes Benz"
Listen to "Mercedes Benz," sung by Janis Joplin, Song #25 of 45 in our blog series, Johnny Be Good. Read why Joplin sang her new song "Acapulco" style! Reminder: Guest bloggers invited! More info here.
I Asked AI to Compare and Contrast!
One day after these ground-breaking books were published, I asked AI to compare and contrast Pattern Breakers with Mastering AI. Both were published on July 9, 2024. Read the results from two AI sources. For more book reviews, visit the Pails in Comparison Blog.
FRIDAY, JULY 26, 2024, while space remains, The Barnabas Group/San Diego is hosting John Pearson for his workshop, "The 4 Big Mistakes to Avoid With Your Nonprofit Board: How Leaders Enrich Their Ministry Results Through God-Honoring Governance." Location: Encinitas, Calif. Register here. ____________________________________
Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free two to four times a month to subscribers. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. As an Amazon Associate, we earn Amazon gift cards from qualifying purchases. As a Libro.fm Affiliate, we earn credits. PRIVACY POLICY: Typepad, Inc. hosts John Pearson's Buckets Blog. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform for Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews. By clicking (above) to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy policy here.
Comments