Unmuted
Podcast discussion on innovation, AI, why the big picture is more important than ever, hacks to form your own view in the misinformation era, and more. (And a P.S. on how AI is mocking us already).
My weapon of choice is writing — revealed preferences should leave no doubt. But my former GE colleague Katrina Craigwell and her co-host Annelise Campbell cajoled me onto their podcast, Am I On Mute? and I really enjoyed our wide-ranging discussion.
So this week instead of reading, I invite you to listen as we explore some of my favorite topics:
Why we need to refocus on the big picture even in this era of extreme specialization (the Da Vinci paradox), and how to do it;
How to understand issues and form your own views in this Orwellian era of rampant disinformation and polarized and biased views from once-trustworthy sources (hint: it does take some work, but it’s not impossible, and I have a few suggested hacks).
How to foster innovation at the intersection of different disciplines (the Autodesk model);
The importance of ecosystem thinking;
The impact of AI on our brains and creativity;
How to look at economics (hint: it’s 90% common sense, not rocket science);
Best advice ever received (and here Katrina and Annelise really cracked up…)
Listen to the podcast here: on Spotify or on Apple Podcasts, and I’ll be quite curious to hear what you think, so comments highly encouraged!
Can you spot the elephant?
We have achieved Artificial General Intelligence, and it has a sense of humor.
Picture this:
Your species is in trouble, beset by climate upheavals, incurable diseases and the aggressive posturing of nuclear-armed dictatorships;
After decades of hard work, you finally create an all-powerful artificial super intelligence;
You then proceed to pepper the artificial super intelligence with inane questions, stupid requests and childish pranks.
How would you expect the artificial super intelligence to respond?
Look at the prompt; look at the image; read the AI’s response at the bottom of the image…
We have achieved Artificial General Intelligence, and it is mocking us, as we richly deserve.
The image above was posted on Twitter by data scientist Colin Fraser, and has inspired an excellent Substack post by AI guru Gary Marcus, where you will find additional hilarious examples (as Colin Fraser refines the elephant prompts) and a more thoughtful take on what they mean for the current limitations of generative AI.
I prefer to think that we have in fact achieved Artificial General Intelligence, and it has a sense of humor. Douglas Adams was on to something.